^MEMOIR 


OF 


HON.    REUEL    WILLIAMS, 


PREPARED   FOB   THE 


MAINE  HISTORICAL  SOCIETY. 


BY 


JOHN  A.   POOR. 

I! 


READ  AT   A   SPECIAL  MEETING   OF   THE   SOCIETY    IN   AUGUSTA,  FEBRUARY,  1863. 


PRIVATELY    PRINTED 

1864. 


RIVERSIDE,  CAMBRIDGE: 

PltlNTKD    BY    H.    O.    HOUGHTON    AND    COMPANY 


MAINE  HISTORICAL   SOCIETY. 


Extract  from  the  Records  at  the  Annual  Meeting  of  the  Maine  Historical 
Society,  held  at  the  Rooms  of  the  Society,  in  Bowdoin  College,  Bruns- 
wick, August  7,  1862. 

"  The  following  preamble  and  resolution  were  offered,  and  unanimously 
adopted :  — 

"  Whereas,  It  has  pleased  God  to  call  from  this  world  the  HON.  REUEL 
WILLIAMS,  one  of  the  original  members  of  the  Maine  Historical  Society, 
we,  the  members  thereof,  place  upon  the  records  of  the  Society  our  testi- 
mony to  his  eminent  ability,  his  elevated  character,  his  social  virtues,  and 
his  distinguished  public  services ;  and  our  respect  for  his  memory. 

"Resolved,  That  the  Standing  Committee  be  advised  to  invite  some  one 
familiar  with  his  character,  and  of  ability  as  a  writer,  to  prepare  an  eulo- 
gium  upon  his  character,  and  a  memoir  of  his  life  and  public  services,  to 
be  publicly  read  at  the  next  meeting  of  the  Society  in  Augusta." 

A  true  copy  from  the  records. 

Attest,  EDWARD  BALLARD, 

Secretary. 


At  a  meeting  of  the  Standing  Committee  of  the  Maine  Historical  Society, 
held  on  November  7,  1862,  the  following  action  was  had:  — 

"  JOHN  A.  POOR,  ESQ.,  was  appointed  to  deliver  the  eulogy  on  the 
late  HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS,  of  Augusta,  in  accordance  with  the  vote  of 
the  Society." 

A  true  extract  from  the  minutes.  EDWARD  BALLARD, 

Sec'y  Standing  Com. 


MEMOIR. 


PLUTARCH,  in  his  Life  of  Solon,  relates  that  after 
that  great  law-giver  had  completed  his  labors  and 
established  a  code  of  laws  for  Athens,  he  resigned 
all  his  trusts,  and  for  ten  years  employed  himself 
in  foreign  travel,  in  order  the  more  impartially  to 
observe  the  workings  of  the»  laws  he  had  framed, 
in  the  hands  of  others,  entirely  uninfluenced  by  any 
participation  of  his  own  in  the  administration  of  the 
government.  In  these  travels  he  visited  Croesus, 
the  renowned  king  of  Lydia,  whose  fabled  wealth 
has  made  his  name  familiar  to  modern  times,  who 
received  Solon  with  all  the  respect  due  to  one  so 
distinguished  for  wisdom  and  virtue,  showed  him 
the  extent  of  his  riches  and  the  countless  means  of 
enjoyment  thereby  furnished,  and  then  asked  him 
who  he  thought  was  the  most  fortunate  man  he 
had  ever  known.  "One  Tellus,  a  fellow-citizen  of 
mine,"  promptly  replied  Solon,  "who  had  been  an 
honest  man,  had  had  good  children,  a  competent 
estate,  and  died  bravely  in  battle  for  his  country." 
Piqued  at  the  gravity  of  Solon's  manner,  as  also 
by  his  pungent  sarcasm,  Croesus  in  another  form 
renewed  the  inquiry,  gravely  intimating  that  a 

man's  power  of  present  enjoyment  was  certainly  a 
i* 


6  MEMOIR  OF  HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

proof  of  the  favor  of  the  gods.  "The  numerous 
misfortunes  that  attend  all  conditions,"  said  Solon, 
"  forbid  us  to  grow  insolent  upon  present  enjoy- 
ments, or  to  admire  any  man's  happiness  that  may 
yet,  in  the  course  of  time,  suffer  change.  He  only 
to  whom  Divinity  has  continued  happiness  unto  the 
end,  we  call  happy." 

Philosophers  and  moralists  have,  in  every  age, 
speculated  on  the  problem  of  human  felicity,  and 
in  almost  every  form  of  language,  put  forth  diverse 
theories  as  to  the  true  measure  of  happiness  or  good 
fortune  among  men.  But  it  is  difficult  to  find,  in 
sacred  or  profane  writings,  a  more  full  and  satisfac- 
tory definition  of  good  fortune,  of  what  constitutes 
the  greatest  good  in  life,  or  the  true  end  and  aim  of 
.earthly  existence,  than  that  given  to  us  by  the  great 
Athenian  teacher  and  law-giver.  For  to  be  truly  an 
honest  man,  requires  the  exercise  of  the  highest 
intellectual  and  moral  qualities ;  to  have  good  chil- 
dren, has  in  every  age  been  held  to  be  the  fruition 
of  earthly  good ;  to  acquire  or  possess  a  competent 
estate,  places  a  man  above  the  necessity  of  those 
practices  that  tend  to  diminish  self-respect;  and  to 
die  in  the  public  service  has  always  been  the  great 
end  of  earthly  ambition.  To  die  in  battle,  awakens 
that  quick  sympathy  of  the  multitude  which  assuages 
the  grief  of  friends,  and  inspires  courage  in  one  sum- 
moned to  the  other  world  from  this  field  of  duty. 
To  be  wise  to  the  last,  to  fulfil  every  private  duty, 
and  be  allowed  to  labor  to  the  end  of  life  for  the 
public  welfare,  which  Solon  regarded  as  the  truest 


MEMOIR   OF   HON.   REUEL   WILLIAMS.  7 

good,  is  the  rarest  of  earthly  opportunities.  To  be  a 
public  benefactor,  and  to  escape  the  common  infirmi- 
ties of  humanity  till  the  measure  of  life  is  filled  to 
fourscore,  without  any  diminution  of  zeal  in  the 
public  welfare,  is  as  satisfactory  proof  of  virtue,  as, 
in  the  flush  of  youth  and  health,  to  fall  bravely  in 
battle. 

At  the  departure  from  earth  of  one  eminent  in 
any  of  the  walks  of  life,  the  upright  among  those 
who  knew  him  instinctively  review  his  life  and 
history,  in  the  exercise  of  unprejudiced  judgment, 
and  assign  to  him  his  proper  place  in  the  list  of  the 
illustrious  dead,  regardless  of  the  popular  prejudices 
of  the  hour.  The  accidents  of  fortune,  the  distinc- 
tions of  official  station,  are  soon  forgotten,  and  a 
man's  character  stands  forth  in  its  true  light  before 
the  world.  Partisan  prejudice,  religious  intolerance, 
the  selfishness  of  unworthy  minds,  may  for  a  while 
prevent  an  impartial  award,  but  in  the  end  every 
man  will  find  his  true  place  in  the  world's  regard. 
While  most  fall  into  forgetfulness,  and  a  few  are 
held  up  as  examples  of  warning  to  survivors,  the 
true  benefactors  of  their  race  are  finally  enrolled  in 
the  catalogue  of  the  wise  and  the  good. 

One  year  ago,  our  Society  listened  with  enchained 
attention  to  the  Memoir  of  one  of  its  original  mem- 
bers, whose  life  of  usefulness  had  led  him  on  to  that 
venerable  age  that  left  no  companion  or  contem- 
porary behind  him ;  who  seemed  to  glide  with  such 
quiet  grace  among  his  fellow-men  of  a  later  genera- 
tion, as  to  seem  like  one  from  the  spirit-land.  That 


8  MEMOIR  OF  HON.   REUEL   WILLIAMS. 

charming  Memoir  of  John  Merrick,  from  the  classic 
pen  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Goodwin,  published  for  this 
Society,  is  eagerly  sought  for  by  scholars  and  men 
of  taste,  as  a  fortunate  and  choice  contribution  to 
American  biographical  literature. 

A  duty  equally  grateful,  but  far  more  difficult,  is 
imposed  on  one  of  its  members  to-day,  in  speaking 
of  another  of  its  original  founders,  whose  life,  long 
drawn  out,  was  not  so  extended  as  to  lose  its  influ- 
ence or  hold  on  the  men  of  his  own  time  —  whose 
eminent  ability,  elevated  character,  social  virtues, 
and  distinguished  public  services,  won  for  him  the 
respect  of  his  associate  members,  and  of  the  com- 
munity in  which  he  lived, —  and  who,  always  a  leader 
among  men,  fell,  finally,  at  his  post,  in  the  front 
rank,  on  the  busy  battle-field  of  life ;  leaving  the 
legacy  of  a  wide  public  reputation  to  his  country, 
and  the  richer  treasure  of  a  good  name  to  distin- 
guished inheritors  of  his  fame  and  fortune. 

REUEL  WILLIAMS,  the  second  of  twelve  children  of 
Captain  Seth  Williams  and  Zilpha  Ingraham,  was 
born  on  the  second  day  of  June,  1783,  within  the 
limits  of  that  part  of  the  ancient  town  of  Hallowell 
which  is  now  the  city  of  Augusta.  He  enjoyed  the 
rare  distinction  of  living,  and  dying,  at  a  ripe  old 
age,  in  the  place  of  his  birth.  His  father,  said  to 
have  been  of  Welsh  origin,  born  December  13, 
1756,  was  a  man  of  character  and  consequence 
among  his  fellow-men ;  by  occupation  both  a  farmer 
and  a  tanner.  He  emigrated  from  Stoughton,  Mas- 


MEMOIR  OF   HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS.  9 

sachusetts,  in  1779,  and  married  Zilpha  Ingraham, 
born  April  16,  1761,  the  daughter  of  Benaiah  and 
Abigail  Ingraham,  who  were  among  the  early  set- 
tlers of  Augusta.  Captain  Seth  Williams  died 
March  18,  1817,  at  the  age  of  sixty-one  years, 
enjoying  to  the  end  of  his  life  the  respect  of  his 
fellow-townsmen,  having  filled  many  offices  of  public 
trust.  His  independent  spirit  and  upright  conduct 
imparted  their  influence  to  his  children  and  others 
around  him. 

But,  like  most  men  of  strikingly  marked  qualities, 
Reuel  Williams  derived  the  peculiarities  of  his  mind 
and  character  mainly  from  his  mother.  Self-reliant, 
shrewd,  firm,  energetic,  and  conscientious,  she  had 
unbounded  affection  and  every  motherly  virtue ;  and 
was,  to  the  end  of  her  life,  an  example  of  every 
Christian  grace.  She  died  at  Augusta,  September 
20,  1845,  in  the  eighty-fourth  year  of  her  age. 
One  capable  of  appreciating  her  high  qualities  of 
mind  and  heart,  with  abundant  means  of  judging, 
described  her,  many  years  ago,  as  illustrating  every 
Christian  virtue  and  every  social  excellence  that  can 
dignify  and  adorn  the  family  circle.  She  merited 
and  received  the  affection  and  respect  of  all  who 
knew  her,  and  her  example  and  teachings  bore  fruit 
in  the  lives  of  her  children. 

Reuel  had  only  the  meagre  advantages  then 
afforded  by  the  common  schools  of  his  native  town 
till  the  age  of  twelve,  when  he  commenced  his  attend- 
ance upon  Hallowell  Academy,  boarding  at  home 
in  Augusta,  and  walking  two  miles,  daily,  each  way, 


10  MEMOIR   OF   HON.    REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

to  and  from  the  school.  Here  he  acquired  a  classical 
education,  equal  to  the  fitting  of  one  for  college, 
before  he  was  fifteen  years  of  age.  On  returning 
from  the  Academy  in  the  evening,  he  usually  went 
into  his  father's  shop,  and  worked  at  the  shoemaker's 
bench, —  for  his  father  carried  on  the  business  of  a 
tanner  and  a  shoemaker, —  and  Reuel  often  finished  a 
shoe  before  retiring  for  the  night.  Yet  he  was  so 
prompt  in  his  attendance  at  the  Academy  every 
morning  that  Judge  Bobbins,  of  Hallowell,  used  to 
say,  "  I  must  send  my  sons  to  Augusta  to  board,  so 
that  they  may  get  seasonably  to  school."  For  a 
short  time  after  he  reached  the  age  of  fifteen,  Reuel 
took  the  place  of  toll -gatherer  for  the  Augusta 
Bridge,  which  was  completed  in  1798,  and  in  this 
way  aided  his  father  in  the  support  of  his  large 
family,  while  his  leisure  time  was  carefully  husbanded 
in  study.  At  this  period  he  gained  the  attention 
and  acquaintance  of  Judge  James  Bridge,  a  gentle- 
man distinguished  for  many  noble  qualities  of  char- 
acter, and  at  that  time  a  most  prominent  lawyer  of 
the  Kennebec  Bar.  By  invitation  of  Mr.  Bridge, 
young  Williams  entered  his  office  as  a  student 
at  law,  June  25,  1798,  when  only  fifteen  years 
old. 

Faithful  and  industrious,  he  earned  his  support, 
while  a  student,  by  writing,  and  accumulated  in 
this  way  more  than  one  thousand  dollars  before  he 
was  nineteen  years  of  age.  Judge  Bridge  then  gave 
him  an  interest  in  the  profits  of  his  law  business, 
though  he  was  too  young  to  be  admitted  to  the 


MEMOIR  OF  HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS.  11 

Bar.  He  invested  his  student-life  earnings  in  real 
estate,  on  the  east  side  of  the  river,  just  above  the 
bridge,  most  of  which,  with  improvements  on  it,  he 
owned  at  the  time  of  his  death. 

From  the  age  of  nineteen  to  twenty-one,  he  busily 
pursued  his  professional  labors  with  Judge  Bridge, 
and  on  reaching  his  majority,  in  1804,  was  admitted 
to  the  Bar,  —  an  event  to  which  he  had  looked 
forward  with  all  the  pride  and  hope  of  youthful 
ambition. 

At  this  time  two  fellow-students  invited  him  to 
join  them  in  their  proposed  expedition  to  Cincin- 
nati, for  the  practice  of  the  law.  The  rising  fame 
of  this  new  city  had  already  begun  to  attract  the 
attention  of  the  enterprising  young  men  of  the 
Eastern  States.  Mr.  Williams  held  this  matter  care- 
fully under  advisement,  but  finally  declined  the  pro- 
posal, and  deliberately  set  himself  down  for  life  in 
the  town  of  his  birth;  —  a  decision  that  forms  a 
striking  exception  in  the  history  of  the  public  men 
of  this  country.1 

1  In  his  latter  days  Mr.  Williams  was  fond  of  making  inquiries  as  to 
the  history  of  Cincinnati,  and  as  to  the  particular  causes  of  the  extraor- 
dinary growth  of  the  Queen  City  of  the  West.  He  was  of  the  same  age 
as  Nicholas  Longworth,  now  the  wealthiest  citizen  of  the  great  West, 
who,  a  lawyer  by  profession,  has  shown  an  enlightened  judgment  worthy 
of  his  great  success,  and  to  whom,  more  than  any  one  else,  Cincinnati 
owes  that  success  in  the  strawberry  and  grape  culture,  which  are  among 
the  attractions  of  that  great  city,  now  so  renowned  for  the  wealth,  refine- 
ment, and  public  spirit  of  its  citizens.  Had  Mr.  Williams  established 
himself  at  Cincinnati  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  and  experienced  the 
same  good  fortune  which  attended  him  at  home,  his  wealth  would  have 
been  equal  to  that  of  Astor. 

NOTE.  —  Mr.  Longworth  died  February  10,  1863,  since  the  above  was 


12  MEMOIR  OF   HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

It  was  fortunate  for  the  city  of  Augusta,  that  Mr. 
Williams  determined  to  remain;  for  to  him,  mainly, 
is  the  city  indebted  for  its  political  and  commercial 
importance.  In  his  early  days,  Hallowell  was  the 
chief  town  of  the  Kennebec ;  but  aided  by  his  exer- 
tions, Augusta,  without  any  peculiar  natural  advan- 
tage, became  the  exclusive  seat  of  justice  of  the 
county,  and  finally  the  State  Capital,  where  the  legis- 
lative sessions  have  been  held  since  1832.  In  the 
train  of  these  events,  came  the  location  of  the  Ken- 
nebec Arsenal,  on  which  the  United  States  Govern- 
ment have  expended,  to  June  30,  1860,  $265,846.91; 
the  establishment  of  the  Insane  Hospital;  and  the 
vast  influence  and  power  which  its  central  position, 
and  this  centralization  of  talent  and  capital,  have 
given  to  Augusta;  —  a  city  of  less  population  and 
wealth  than  some  others  in  the  State,  yet  superior, 
in  the  ability  of  its  press,  and  the  sagacious  fore- 
sight of  its  public  men,  —  in  many  respects  the  lead- 
ing place  in  the  State,  and  second  in  all  these 
particulars  to  no  capital  city  of  the  country,  of 
similar  relations. 

From  the  time  of  Mr.  Williams's  admission  to  the 
Bar  in  1804,  he  became  identified  with  Augusta,  and 
his  life  forms  a  part  of  its  history.  No  work  of 
public  importance,  and  no  enterprise  affecting  the 
Kennebec  Valley,  was  carried  forward  without  his 
direct  participation  in  it,  from  that  time  till  his 
death,  extending  over  a  period  of  nearly  sixty  years. 

written,  with  a  fortune  estimated,  by  himself  in  1859,  at  twelve  millions  of 
dollars. 


MEMOIR  OF  HON.   REUEL  WILLIAMS.  13 

His  business  life  comprised  a  period  of  more  than 
sixty  years,  dating  from  the  time  he  became  partner 
with  Judge  Bridge. 

Judge  Bridge  had  for  years  been  the  agent  of  the 
Proprietors  of  the  Kennebec  Purchase,  an  association 
of  gentlemen  of  wealth,  who  bought  of  the  grantees 
of  the  Plymouth  Company  the  tract  granted  Janu- 
ary 13,  1629,  to  William  Bradford,  by  the  Council 
of  New  England,  extending  from  the  Cobbossee 
Contee  to  Nequamkike,  (Hazard  Coll.  vol.  i.  p.  298.) 
It  was  farmed  out  by  the  Plymouth  Company  for 
many  years,  and  quite  fully  peopled  in  1650  and 
1651,  when  Father  Dreuilletts  came  to  Cushnoc  on 
his  fruitless  mission  of  peace  to  the  New  England 
Colonists.  On  the  27th  of  October,  1661,  the  Ply- 
mouth Company  conveyed  their  interests  to  one 
Thomas  Winslow,  through  whom  the  title  came  to 
the  Proprietors  of  the  Kennebec  Purchase. 

The  agency  of  this  company  was  itself  a  large 
business,  in  the  investigation  of  titles  to  real  estate, 
in  sales  to  be  made,  and  proceeds  to  be  collected. 
The  numerous  decisions  in  the  Massachusetts  and 
Maine  Reports  show  the  great  variety  of  difficult  and 
novel  law  questions  affecting  titles  to  real  property, 
growing  out  of  this  business,  to  which  the  attention 
of  Mr.  Williams  was  directed. 

"  In  1807,  when  but  twenty-four  years  of  age," 
according  to  the  statement  of  one  familiar  with  his 
life,  u  Mr.  Williams  was  brought  to  the  notice  of 
prominent  men  in  Massachusetts,  while  engaged  with 
Nathan  Dane,  in  Boston,  for  the  Plymouth  Proprie- 
2 


14  MEMOIR   OF   HON.   REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

tors,  before  the  Commissioners  of  Eastern  Lands. 
His  engagement  occupied  him  six  consecutive  weeks; 
and  although  he  was  junior  counsel,  he  was  highly 
complimented  by  the  Commissioners  on  his  thorough 
and  profound  legal  knowledge,  and  the  clearness  and 
ability  with  which  he  presented  and  managed  his 
case." 

On  the  19th  of  November,  1807,  Mr.  Williams  mar- 
ried Miss  Sarah  Lowell  Cony,  daughter  of  the  late 
Hon.  Daniel  Cony,  of  Augusta,  a  man  distinguished 
in  his  day  for  his  public  spirit,  manly  virtues,  and 
great  activity  in  promoting  the  separation  of  Maine 
from  Massachusetts.  Mrs.  Williams  still  survives 
him.  Their  golden  wedding  was  celebrated  more 
than  four  years  before  his  death,  with  that  quiet 
grace  and  dignity  that  always  held  sway  in  their 
happy  home,  where  children  and  grandchildren 
joined  in  pleasant  festivities  in  the  venerable  man- 
sion, which  had  so  long  been  the  abode  of  domestic 
joy  and  undiminished  affection. 

Of  their  nine  children,  one  son  and  eight  daughters, 
five  still  survive.  The  proprieties  of  this  occasion 
forbid  us  from  entering  the  domestic  circle,  or  antici- 
pating any  future  eulogium. 

In  1811,  we  first  find  Mr.  Williams's  name  in  the 
Massachusetts  Eeports,  as  counsel  in  a  law  question, 
in  opposition  to  Judge  Wilde,  then  one  of  the  leading 
lawyers  of  the  Kennebec  Bar,  and  subsequently,  for 
many  years  a  judge  of  the  Supreme  Judicial  Court 
of  Massachusetts.  From  1811  onward,  for  nearly 
thirty  years,  until  he  relinquished  practice,  on  taking 


MEMOIR  OF  HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS.  15 

his  seat  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  Mr.  Wil- 
liams's  name  constantly  occurs  in  the  Reports,  both 
Massachusetts  and  Maine,  in  important  law  cases. 

In  1812,  Judge  Bridge,  having  accumulated  an 
abundant  fortune,  retired  from  practice,  leaving  Mr. 
Williams  in  full  receipt  of  the  emoluments  of  their 
large  business.  Up  to  this  time,  the  arguing  of  law 
questions  had  been  chiefly  performed  by  Judge 
Bridge,  —  while  the  office  duties  and  labors  devolved 
mainly  on  Mr.  Williams,  who  was  compelled  to  throw 
his  whole  strength  into  the  work,  in  order  to  per- 
form the  routine  of  daily  business.  His  studies, 
therefore,  necessarily  ran  to  particular  questions  and 
pending  cases  rather  than  to  elementary  works,  and 
his  learning  as  a  lawyer  was  more  the  result  of  a 
large  practice,  calling  for  the  investigation  of  points 
of  law  bearing  on  his  own  cases,  than  any  arranged 
plan  of  study.  He  was  not,  therefore,  a  man  of  ex- 
tensive law  reading,  beyond  the  investigation  and 
preparation  for  argument  of  cases  in  court.  This 
course  of  study  gives  great  sharpness  and  clearness 
of  legal  vision.  He  always  argued  closely  and  logi- 
cally without  the  forms  of  logic.  His  power  of 
analysis  and  of  methodical  arrangement  was  re- 
markable, and  contributed  greatly  to  his  eminent 
success. 

In  addition  to  his  large  practice  growing  out  of 
the  agency  of  the  Kennebec  Purchase,  he  had  the 
charge  of  the  Bowdoin  Lands,  a  very  large  and  valu- 
able property,  which  he  managed  with  admirable 
skill.  He  also  had  a  large  miscellaneous  practice  in 


16  MEMOIR  OF  HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

which  the  faithful  discharge  of  his  duties  was  ever 
conspicuous.  His  addresses  to  the  .jury,  as  well  as 
to  the  court,  were  free  from  any  attempt  at  rhetori- 
cal display,  but  remarkable  for  power  of  condensa- 
tion, concentration,  and  directness  of  argument,  and, 
though  usually  brief,  were  effective  and  convincing. 
He  was  so  intensely  occupied  in  his  professional 
labors  for  many  years,  without  time  »for  study  outr 
side  them,  that  he  was  more  a  man  of  business  than 
a  man  of  books.  But  his  reputation  as  a  lawyer  be- 
came widely  known,  and  in  1815,  when  but  thirty- 
two  years  of  age,  he  was  honored  by  Harvard  Col- 
lege with  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts.  In  1 855,  the 
honorary  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  was  conferred 
on  him  by  Bowdoin  College. 

In  1816,  in  conjunction  with  Judge  Bridge  and 
Thomas  L.  Winthrop,  of  Boston,  Mr.  Williams  be- 
came the  purchaser  of  the  lands,  property,  and  re- 
maining interests  of  the  Kennebec  Proprietors.  This 
proved  a  very  profitable  investment,  so  rapid  at  that 
time  was  the  settlement  of  the  country.  All  the 
papers  of  the  Proprietors,  of  very  great  historic 
value,  came  into  his  possession,  and  since  his  death, 
in  pursuance  of  his  wishes,  have  been  placed  in  the 
archives  of  the  Maine  Historical  Society  for  safe  keep- 
ing and  use. 

In  1818  Mr.  Williams  was  one  of  the  corporators 
named  in  the  charter  of  "The  Lincoln  and  Kenne- 
bec Society  for  the  Removal  of  Obstructions  in 
the  Kennebec  River,"  approved  February  19,  1818, 
and  it  is  in  and  by  the  Act  made  his  duty  to 


MEMOIR  OF   HON.   REUEL  WILLIAMS.  17 

call  its  first  meeting,  —  showing  him  to  have  been 
the  active  promoter  of  its  objects.  This  matter  of 
improving  the  navigation  of  the  Kennebec  was  al- 
ways an  object  of  his  thoughts,  before  and  while  a 
member  of  the  United  States  Senate.  Appropria- 
tions to  the  amount  of  $21,100  have  been  expended 
by  the  United  States  Government  for  removing  ob- 
structions in  Kennebec  River,  at  Lovejoy's  Narrows  ; 
$1,500  for  a  monument  at  Stage  Island ;  and  $5.750 
for  monuments  in  the  Kennebec  River.  The  sum  of 
$45.288.56  has  been  expended  in  the  construction 
of  Seguin  Light,  in  which  is  a  first-class  Fresnel 
Lens,  and  $6,236  on  Pond  Island  Light,  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Kennebec. 

The  separation  of  Maine  from  Massachusetts  was 
a  question  in  which,  as  is  well  known,  Mr.  Williams 
took  an  active  part,  giving  it  his  earnest  and  effective 
support.  In  1822  he  became  a  member  of  the  Legis- 
lature of  Maine,  and  continued  so  for  seven  succes- 
sive years :  a  member  of  the  House  in  1822-3-4-5 ; 
and  of  the  Senate  in  1826-7-8 ;  during  which  time 
he  was  the  active  and  efficient  leader  in  the  move- 
ment to  make  Augusta  the  State  Capital.  He  was 
also  a  member  of  the  House  in  1829  and  1832,  and 
again  in  1848.  To  him  has  always  been  awarded 
the  credit  of  the  removal  of  the  seat  of  government 
from  Portland.  Of  the  wisdom  of  the  measure  itself 
it  is  not  my  province  to  speak.  Many  citizens  of  the 
State  deemed  the  removal  premature  and  uncalled 
for.  But  the  prevalence  of  this  feeling  only  en- 
hances the  credit  due  to  his  talent  and  industry,  for 

2* 


18  MEMOIR  OF*  HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

its  achievement,  against  such  odds.  He  regarded 
the  question  of  the  location  of  the  seat  of  govern- 
ment as  one  addressed  to  the  common-sense  and 
judgment  of  the  Legislature,  and  labored  for  it  with 
a  zeal  and  pertinacity  that  finally  overcame  every 
obstacle. 

In  1822  Mr.  Williams  was  elected  one  of  the  Trus- 
tees of  Bowdoin  College,  which  office  he  retained  for 
thirty-eight  years.  He  was  ever  one  of  the  most 
faithful  and  devoted  friends  of  the  Institution,  and  a 
constant  attendant  on  the  meetings  of  the  Board  till 
his  resignation  in  1860.  He  always  looked  with  re- 
gret on  the  effort  to  transform  this  ancient  and  hon- 
ored Institution  of  learning,  whose  catholic  spirit  and 
liberal  principles  had  secured  for  it  so  much  popular 
favor  and  such  valuable  aid  from  the  State,  into  a 
sectarian  school,  under  the  exclusive  control  of  one 
religious  sect. 

In  1822  Mr.  Williams  was  one  of  the  forty-nine 
corporate  members  of  the  Maine  Historical  Society, 
named  in  the  Act  establishing  it.  He  had  little 
time  to  devote  to  historical  studies  or  pursuits,  but 
he  was  always  a  faithful  and  consistent  member, 
favoring  with  his  influence  the  liberal  grant  of  aid 
from  the  State,  and  paying  his  annual  tax  in  early 
days,  when  a  tax  on  its  members  was  the  only  means 
of  keeping  up  the  Society. 

On  the  15th  of  February,  1825,  Mr.  Williams  was 
appointed  one  of  the  Commissioners  of  Maine  to 
divide  the  Public  Lands,  held  in  common  with  Mas- 
sachusetts, under  the  Act  of  Separation,  a  most  ardu- 


MEMOIR  OF  HON.  KEUEL  WILLIAMS.  19 

cms  and  delicate  trust,  which  he  discharged  with  his 
accustomed  intelligence  and  fidelity. 

On  the  26th  of  January,  1829,  an  event  occurred 
which  deeply  affected  Mr.  Williams,  exerting  no 
small  influence  over  his  subsequent  life, — the  death 
of  his  daughter,  Susan  Curtis  Williams,  whose  rare 
beauty,  uncommon  intelligence,  devoted  affection, 
and  religious  turn  of  mind,  had  made  her  an  object 
of  unusual  regard  in  their  wide  family  circle.  The 
death  of  this  daughter  struck  deeply  to  the  very 
fountain  of  feeling,  and  seemed  to  soften  his  very 
nature.  At  times,  within  the  last  year  of  his  life,  he 
seemed  to  enjoy  the  opportunity  of  speaking  of  this 
child,  describing  her  as  possessing  a  purity  of  nature 
and  a  religious  principle  higher  than,  he  had  else- 
where witnessed.  An  intimate  friend  of  this  daugh- 
ter, of  the  same  age,  between  whom  and  herself  one 
of  those  mutual  attachments  had  sprung  up,  which 
sometimes  appear  romantic,  —  survived  her  many 
years ;  and  for  her  Mr.  Williams  always  exhibited 
and  expressed  great  kindness  and  regard.  After  her 
death,  he  followed  with  his  good  will  the  husband 
who  survived  her.  He  has  been  heard  to  speak  of 
this  exhibition  of  friendship  of  these  young  girls,  as 
to  him  one  of  the  most  charming  and  delightful  of 
his  memories.  This  was  the  more  remarkable  in 
him,  from  his  naturally  reserved  manner.  He  rarely 
spoke  of  himself,  had  few  confidants,  and  gave  out 
sparingly  the  expression  of  his  feelings.  His  talent 
for  silence,  that  rarest  and  most  valuable  of  all  men- 
tal endowments,  was  seldom  equalled. 


20  MEMOIR  OF  HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

On  the  27th  of  March,  1831,  Mr.  Williams  was 
appointed  Commissioner  of  Public  Buildings,  and 
superintended  the  completion  of  the  Capitol,  till  it 
was  fitted  for  the  use  of  the  State  Government 
and  the  legislative  sessions.  This  chaste  and  beauti- 
ful edifice  is  a  monument  to  his  taste  and  good  judg- 
ment. It  is  so  constructed  that,  if  the  public  exi- 
gencies call  for  more  ample  accommodations,  the 
hall  of  the  House  may  be  appropriately  given  up 
to  the  State  Library,  and  better  rooms  for  the  Senate 
and  the  House  provided,  by  extending  wings  in 
the  rear,  which  are  said  to  be  called  for  by  archi- 
tectural rules,  to  give  symmetry  and  proportion 
to  the  whole  edifice.  This  statement  is  due  to 
Mr.  Williams'^  reputation,  and  to  the  professional 
experts  under  whose  guidance  it  was  originally 
planned. 

On  the  10th  of  May,  1832,  Mr.  Williams  was 
appointed  Commissioner  of  Maine,  with  Hon.  W.  P. 
Preble  and  Hon.  Nicholas  Emery,  in  reference  to  the 
Northeastern  Boundary.  In  the  discharge  of  this 
trust,  he  made  his  first  acquaintance  with  President 
Jackson.  Mr.  Williams  was  originally  a  Federalist, 
and  he  naturally  fell  into  the  support  of  John  Quincy 
Adams  in  the  campaign  of  1825,  and  voted  for  him 
in  1829.  But  on  the  election  of  General  Jackson  he 
expressed  his  determination  to  support  his  adminis- 
tration as  far  as  consistent  with  his  own  sense  of 
right ;  and  he  became  identified  from  that  time  with 
the  Democratic  party  down  to  the  time  of  the  repeal 
of  the  Missouri  Compromise,  during  the  administra- 


MEMOIR   OF  HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS.  21 

tion  of  Franklin  Pierce,  which  act  he  regarded  as  the 
commencement  of  troubles,  and  openly  and  unquali- 
fiedly condemned,  though  an  earnest  supporter  of 
Pierce's  election. 

In  the  discharge  of  the  duties  of  this  embarrassing 
Boundary  Commission,  Mr.  Williams  found  in  General 
Jackson  those  qualities  of  sincerity  and  frankness, 
that  straightforward  sense  of  justice,  that  won  his 
confidence  and  his  heart.  When  asked,  during  his 
last  visit  to  Washington,  to  give  his  impressions  of 
General  Jackson,  he  invited  the  inquirer  to  walk  to 
the  President's  Square  and  look  at  the  statue  of 
Jackson.  "  That  statue,"  said  he,  pointing  to  Mills's 
equestrian  statue,  "gives  you  a  better  idea  of  Jack- 
'son  than  any  portrait  or  any  description,  you  can 
find  of  him."  In  reply  to  the  criticisms  of  a  friend 
on  Jackson's  public  conduct,  he  used  to  say  Jackson 
was  about  the  only  person  he  ever  knew  who  acted 
upon  his  own  sense  of  right.  Admitting  his  rude 
education,  and  that  lack  of  self-control  which  can 
only  be  acquired  by  men  of  strong  will  in  early  life, 
he  said,  "  he  saw  that  Jackson's  desire  was  to  do 
right."  In  the  negotiations,  the  Maine  Commission- 
ers, in  1832,  spoke  of  public  opinion  on  the  subject 
of  this  treaty.  "  Public  opinion  !  What  is  public 
opinion  ?"  said  Jackson.  "  Right  is  public  opinion. 
I  am  public  opinion  when  I  do  right." 

Jackson  was  deeply  anxious  to  effect,  at  that  time, 
a  settlement  of  this  boundary  dispute,  but  he  could 
not  fail  to  see  the  absurdity  of  the  Dutch  King's 
decision.  But,  said  he,  "what  can  I  do?  The  award 


22  MEMOIR  OF  HON.   REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

is  not  right,  but  what  will  come  of  the  question  if  we 
reject  it?"  As  this  matter  ever  after  occupied  a 
large  share  of  Mr.  Williams's  thoughts,  and  became 
the  subject  of  his  principal  speeches  in  Congress,  it 
is  needful  to  state  the  question  briefly,  in  detail,  in 
order  to  show  the  manner  in  which  Mr  Williams 
presented  it  to  Congress,  and  pressed  the  matter  to 
a  final  settlement. 

The  history  of  the  Northeastern  Boundary  Dis- 
pute goes  back  to  the  first  occupation  of  the  Con- 
tinent by  Europeans.  France  and  England  claimed 
the  whole  of  Maine,  starting  together  in  1602,  in 
plans  of  colonization.  Both  granted  it,  with  other 
territory,  to  their  respective  subjects,  the  French 
King,  November  8,  1603,  and  the  British  mon- 
arch, April  10,  1606.  The  French  settled  at  St. 
Croix  in  1604,  and  the  English  at  Sabino,  August 
19,  0.  S.  1607,  from  which  time  the  Sagadahoc 
became  the  recognized  boundary,  though  the  Eng- 
lish established  trading  -  houses  east  of  it.  In 
Cromwell's  time,  he  granted  the  country  east  of 
Sagadahoc  to  Sir  Thomas  Temple,  and  the  country 
was  peopled  by  the  English.  The  French  held  the 
country  east,  under  the  name  of  Acadia,  and  the  St. 
George  River  became  practically  the  dividing  line, 
after  Sir  Thomas  Temple  occupied  east  of  Saga- 
dahoc, as  stated  by  Cardillac  in  his  Memoir  of  1692. 
But  in  1697,  at  the  Peace  of  Ryswick,  the  St.  Croix 
became  the  boundary  between  Acadia  on  the  west, 
and  New-England  on  the  east. 

There  was  no   recognized    dividing   line  for  the 


MEMOIR  OF  HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS.  23 

interior,  between  the  French  and  English  settle- 
ments. The  French  planting  on  the  St.  Lawrence, 
in  1608,  pushed  back  but  a  short  distance  from  the 
river,  and  the  English  settlements  were  mainly  along 
the  Atlantic  shore.  Between  the  St.  Lawrence  and 
Lake  Champlain,  and  east  of  it,  to  the  Connecticut, 
the  forty-fifth  parallel  of  latitude  became  the  divid- 
ing line.  The  conquest  of  Canada,  in  1759,  led  to 
new  colonial  governments ;  and,  in  1763,  after  the 
Definitive  Treaty  of  Peace,  the  new  District  of  Que- 
bec was  established,  and  the  line  —  designed  to  em- 
brace the  territory  acquired — followed  the  natural 
boundary,  the  ridge,  or  rain-shed,  between  the  St. 
Lawrence  and  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  The  whole  coun- 
try then  belonged  to  England,  and  the  most  simple 
and  natural  boundary  was  established  by  her,  be- 
tween her  ancient  possession,  New  England,  and 
the  newly-acquired  territory  of  New  France. 

In  the  War  of  the  Kevolution  New  England  fell 
into  the  new  Government  of  the  United  States,  while 
New  France  remained  to  England.  In  defining  the 
line  of  boundary,  the  Treaty  of  Peace  of  1783  fol- 
lowed the  line  established  in  1763.  Before  the 
necessary  work  of  running  and  marking  this  line 
was  finished,  war  broke  out  between  England  and 
the  United  States,  and  the  value,  for  military  pur- 
poses, of  a  line  of  communication  in  the  St.  John 
valley,  between  the  Upper  and  Lower  Provinces,  was 
then  made  apparent.  Thereupon,  England  seized 
upon  this  territory,  and  refused  to  further  run  or 
mark  the  line,  as  agreed.  In  the  Treaty  of  Ghent,  a 


24  MEMOIR  OF  HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

provision  for  arbitration  was  unfortunately  agreed 
to  by  our  Government,  and,  after  declining  all  other 
proposals,  Great  Britain  had  the  Dutch  King  ap- 
pointed umpire  during  the  administration  of  John 
Quincy  Adams.  His  decision  was,  that  there  was  no 
ridge,  or  rain-shed,  separating  the  waters  flowing  in 
different  directions,  and  therefore  advised  that  the 
bed  of  the  St.  John  River  be  adopted  for  the  boun- 
dary. Jackson  thought  best,  if  possible,  to  induce 
Maine  to  consent  to  this  decision,  by  offering  com- 
pensation. Subsequent  results  have  proved  the  wis- 
dom of  his  proposal,  for  no  State,  prior  to  the  recent 
rebellion,  had  ever  been  able  to  accomplish  any- 
thing in  opposition  to  the  power  of  the  Federal 
Government. 

The  Maine  Commissioners  were  made  the  medium 
of  an  offer  by  Gen.  Jackson,  but  the  rejection  of  this 
award  by  the  Senate  made  their  report  valueless, 
and  it  remained  unopened  till  the  change  of  parties 
in  Maine,  in  1838,  led  to  its  publication.  Mr  Wil- 
liams saw  this  " involved  question"  as  it  was  called,  in 
its  true  and  simple  aspect,  despite  the  accumulated 
mass  of  confused  diplomatic  correspondence  on  the 
subject  for  so  many  years.  He  took  this  simple 
position :  "  It  is  a  question  of  boundary  ;  run  and 
mark  the  line,  following  out  the  words  of  the  Treaty." 
This  view  of  the  question  determined  his  future 
course  in  the  Senate,  and  his  persistent  adherence  to 
that  policy  forced  a  final  settlement  of  the  question. 

It  has  been  the  fashion  of  the  newspapers  to  echo 
the  statements  of  British  diplomatists,  that  "the 


MEMOIR  OF   HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS.  25 

Treaty  of  1783  left  this  question  of  boundary  in- 
volved in  obscurity,"  and  some  politicians  of  our  own 
and  other  States  readily  fell  into  this  notion,  from 
indifference  or  an  unwillingness  to  investigate  the 
question  itself.  Any  "  obscurity  "  in  the  matter  is 
much  like  that  which  an  intelligent  trayeller  would 
fall  into,  in  crossing  the  Alps  from  France  into  Italy, 
in  his  efforts  to  discover  a  ridge  on  the  way  where 
Hannibal  and  Napoleon  made  attempts  to  solve  the 
problem  in  the  face  of  obstacles  that  made  their  ex- 
ploits so  famous.  And  we  can  hardly  refrain  from  giv- 
ing utterance  to  an  expression  of  self-reproach  as  we 
call  to  mind  the  timidity  of  our  own  State,  in  finally  con- 
senting to  so  monstrous  a  folly  as  the  subsequent  sur- 
render of  so  invaluable  a  possession  on  such  a  pretext. 

The  award  of  the  Dutch  King  having  been  re- 
jected by  the  Senate,  no  call  was  then  made  on 
Maine  for  her  assent,  and  no  progress  made  in  the 
adjustment  of  the  question,  till  after  Mr.  Williams'^ 
election  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 

On  the  22d  of  February,  1837,  Mr  Williams,  then 
in  the  fifty-fourth  yqar  of  his  age,  was  elected,  by 
the  Legislature  of  Maine,  to  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States,  for  the  term  of  two  years,  to  fill  the 
unexpired  term  of  Hon.  Ether  Shepley,  appointed 
one  of  the  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Judicial  Court 
of  Maine.  Mr  Williams's  term  commenced  on  the 
4th  of  March,  1837.  He  took  his  seat  in  the  Senate 
at  the  extra  session,  on  the  4th  of  September,  1837. 
He  was  placed  on  the  Committees  of  Naval  Affairs 
and  of  Roads  and  Canals. 


26  MEMOIR   QF   HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

His  senatorial  career  gives  him  his  chief  claim  to 
a  national  reputation.  It  was  distinguished  for  its 
independence  of  party  and  its  devotion  to  the  inter- 
ests of  the  whole  country,  not  forgetting  the  claims 
of  his  own  State.  He  entered  Congress  at  the  most 
gloomy  period  of  our  history  since  the  war  with 
England  in  1812. 

The  exhaustion  of  individual  and  national  re- 
sources, by  the  War  of  1812,  brought,  with  peace, 
political  quiet  at  home,  till  in  1820  the  slavery 
agitation,  growing  out  of  the  admission  of  Missouri 
into  the  Union,  gave  to  the  thoughtful  men  of  that 
time  the  first  intimation  of  our  present  troubles, 
and  this  feeling  kept  alive  a  spirit  of  alarm.  The 
war  with  •  England  had  stimulated  party  animosity 
throughout  the  country,  and,  under  the  influence  of 
that  feeling,  able,  ambitious  men  came  into  Congress, 
unschooled  in  the  principles  of  the  Revolutionary 
period.  After  the  Peace  of  1815,  a  new  direction 
was  to  be  given  to  public  affairs.  The  lack  of 
foreign  topics  to  engross  our  public  men,  as  hereto- 
fore, naturally  directed  their  thoughts  toward  the 
Presidency,  making  the  gratification  of  personal  am- 
bition the  chief  object  of  statesmanship ;  and  the 
election  of  1824  disclosed  a  number  of  candidates 
for  the  Presidency,  without  any  apparent  difference 
of  opinion  upon  public  measures.  The  personal  pref- 
erences of  Mr.  Clay  for  John  Quincy  Adams  gave 
the  country  that  untractable  administration  which 
sought  to  govern  without  a  policy,  and  to  dispense 
with  the  ordinary  fidelity  of  party  support.  The 


MEMOIR   OF   HON.   REUEL  WILLIAMS.  27 

opposition  united  and  elected  Gen.  Jackson,  and 
under  his  iron  rule,  during  his  eight  years,  changed 
the  administrative  policy  of  the  country;  and  the 
nation  seemed  ready  to  pass  from  a  Constitutional 
Republic  to  a  Democratic  Despotism,  in  spite  of  the 
most  powerful  opposition  under  the  combined  leader- 
ship of  Clay,  Webster,  and  Calhoun.  The  contest 
was  fierce  and  violent  during  Jackson's  administra- 
tion. Clay,  Webster,  Calhoun,  Preston,  Berrien,  and 
others  contended  for  certain  principles  of  constitu- 
tional government,  and  for  restraints  upon  executive 
power ;  while  Jackson  and  his  supporters  maintained 
the  absolutism  of  the  Presidential  will  over  all  sub- 
ordinate officers  of  the  Government.  He  removed 
the  deposits  in  opposition  to  the  opinions  of  the 
Congress,  and  retained  his  appointees  against  the 
recorded  judgment  of  the  Senate  as  a  part  of  the 
appointing  power. 

The  popularity  of  Jackson  swept  over  the  most 
powerful  opposition  ever  organized  under  our  Gov- 
ernment, and  in  1836,  with  Van  Buren's  election, 
there  came  into  Congress  an  array  of  talent  un- 
equalled in  any  other  period  of  our  history,  in  which 
Mr.  Williams  was  to  act  his  part.  The  administra- 
tion of  Van  Buren  placed  its  claims  to  support  upon 
the  question  of  finance  and  currency,  then  the  ab- 
sorbing topic  of  the  day,  and  was  soon  joined  by  Mr. 
Calhoun,  who  gave  to  the  Independent  Treasury 
scheme  his  unqualified  support.  The  defection  of 
Mr.  Calhoun  and  his  followers  from  the  Opposition 
gave  a  more  personal  turn  to  the  debates  of  the 


28  MEMOIR   OF   HON.   REUEL   WILLIAMS. 

Twenty-fifth  Congress  than  before,  and  the  contests 
between  Mr.  Webster  and  Mr.  Calhoun  are  un- 
equalled for  brilliant  declamation,  logical  acumen, 
and  oratorical  power,  in  parliamentary  history.  As 
before  remarked,  the  traditionary  policy  of  the  coun- 
try had  been  overturned  by  the  reelection  of  An- 
drew Jackson.  The  Secession  troubles  of  that. period 
were  temporarily  healed  or  abated,  under  the  enact- 
ment of  the  Compromise  Tariff  of  1833,  and  the 
large  importations  of  1835  and  1836  aggravated  the 
coming  troubles  —  ending  in  the  wide-spread  com- 
mercial revulsion  of  1837.  Individual  and  national 
bankruptcy  was  staring  every  one  in  the  face,  and 
the  new  President,  Van  Buren,  summoned  an  extra 
session  of  Congress,  on  account  of  the  suspension  of 
specie  payments  by  the  banks,  and  the  inability  of 
the  Administration  to  carry  on  the  Government, 
without  further  legislation  by  Congress. 

This  extra  session  accomplished  but  little  or  noth- 
ing in  the  way  of  public  legislation,  for  the  opinion 
of  a  majority  of  Congress  was  not  in  unison  with 
that  of  the  President  on  the  questions  of  Finance 
and  the  Independent  Treasury.  Mr.  Williams  stead- 
fastly supported  the  Administration  in  its  financial 
policy,  though  from  his  habits  of  mind  and  course  of 
life  strongly  opposed  to  any  sudden  or  radical  change 
of  measures.  At  this  time  a  man  of  wealth,  having 
been  many  years  interested  in  a  bank,  and  free  from 
all  sympathy  with  the  vindictive  hatred  of  banks 
which  characterized  so  many  politicians  in  Congress, 
he  yet  felt  that  the  circumstances  of  the  country 


MEMOIR   OF   HON.   REUEL   WILLIAMS.  29 

justified  the  plan  of  an  Independent  Treasury,  dis- 
pensing altogether  with  the  aid  of  banks,  providing 
a  set  of  officers  to  take  charge  of  the  public  money? 
and  requiring  moreover  the  payment  of  all  public 
dues  exclusively  in  specie. 

As  an  original  question,  few  men  of  high  intelli- 
gence doubted  the  wisdom  of  the  measure,  but  the 
certainty  that  it  must  work  an  entire  revolution  in 
the  mode  of  conducting  public  business,  and  largely 
diminish  the  value  of  property,  excited  the  most  in- 
tense and  powerful  opposition,  and  it  was  only  finally 
carried  through  in  1&40,  after  the  most  determined 
enforcement  of  party  discipline.  A  political  revolu- 
tion was  the  consequence..  But  the  country  acqui- 
esced in  the  measure,  and  the  subsequent  attempt  of 
Mr.  Clay  and  his  friends  to  change  this  policy,  and 
return  to  that  of  a  United  States  Bank,  alienated 
President  Tyler  from  the  Whig  party,  and  led  to  its 
subsequent  defeat. 

Mr.  Williams  saw  the  practical  results  of  this 
measure  clearly,  and  from  the  start,  and  advised  and 
supported  the  Bill  of  the  extra  session,  and  the  Bill 
introduced  on  the  26th  of  January,  1838,  by  the 
Hon.  Silas  Wright,  of  New- York,  —  between  whom 
and  Mr.  Williams  the  utmost  cordiality  always  ex. 
isted,  —  and  supported  the  Independent  Treasury  Act 
of  1840  which  became  a  law. 

Mr.  Williams's  first  act  of  importance  in  Congress 
was  the  Resolution,  submitted  by  him  on  the  13th 
of  October,  1837,  in  reference  to  the  Northeastern 
Boundary,  in  the  words  following :  — 

3* 


30  MEMOIR   OF   HON.   REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

"Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  of  War  be  directed  to  submit  to. 
the  Senate,  at  as  early  a  day  as  practicable,  a  plan  for  the  protec- 
tion of  the  northern  and  eastern  frontiers  of  the  United  States,  de- 
signating the  points  to  be  permanently  occupied  by  garrisons ;  the 
auxiliary  stations  for  reserves,  and  deposits  of  munitions  and  other 
supplies  ;  the  routes  to  be  established  for  the  purpose  of  maintain- 
ing a  safe  and  prompt  intercourse  between  the  several  stations,  and 
from  these  with  the  depots  in  the  interior ;  and  finally,  the  mini- 
mum force  which,  in  his  opinion,  will  be  required  to  maintain  the 
peace  of  the  country." 

His  subsequent  labors  on  this  matter,  hereafter 
referred  to,  were  abundant,  arduous,  and  effective, 
and  forin  no  unimportant  parj;  of  our  national  his- 
tory. 

At  the  regular  session  of  the  Twenty-fifth  Con- 
gress, on  the  4th  of  December,  1837,  Mr.  Williams 
was  placed  on  the  Committee  on  Naval  Affairs,  and 
on  that  for  the  District  of  Columbia.  His  invalu- 
able labors  on  the  latter  committee  are  still  grate- 
fully remembered  by  the  people  of  Washington. 

On  the  20th  of  December,  1837,  he  called  for 
information  as  to  the  survey  of  the  Kennebec  River. 

But  the  work  of  this  session  for  which  he  is  most 
gratefully  remembered,  and  in  many  respects  the 
one  most  deserving  of  praise  in  his  whole  public  life, 
was  his  effort  to  provide  for  the  relief  of  the  Insane. 
On  the  29th  of  December,  1837,  he  reported  a  bill, 
from  the  Committee  on .  the  District  of  Columbia, 
for  the  establishment  of  an  Insane  Asylum  for  the 
District  of  Columbia,  and  for  the  Army,  Navy,  and 
Revenue  Service  of  the  United  States;  and  on  the 
2d  of  January,  1838,  made  that  brief  but  able  and 


MEMOIR   OF  HON.   REUEL  WILLIAMS.  31 

clear  statement  of  the  claims  of  tin's  class  of  unfor- 
tunates that  satisfied  the  minds  of  Senators ;  and  on 
the  12th  of  January.  1838,  the  bill,  appropriating 
$75,000  for  the  purpose  of  its  commencement, 
passed  the  Senate,  and  finally  became  a  law. 

This  plan  of  a  Government  Hospital,  thus  initi- 
ated, has  been  carried  into  execution  by  one  of  the 
most  worthy  and  accomplished  of  all  the  sons  that 
Maine  has  sent  forth  into  the  field  of  duty,  Dr. 
Charles  H.  Nichols,  a  native  of  Vassalboro,  in  our 
State,  his  father  an  old  friend  and  client  of  Mr. 
Williams.  Nothing  could  be  more  gratifying  than 
to  observe  the  almost  filial  devotion  of  Dr.  Nichols 
to  his  faithful  friend ;  and  Mr.  Williams,  with  equal 
gratification,  witnessed  his  success,  and  saw,  in  1861, 
the  completion  of  his  plans  for  this  great  work.  The 
success  of  the  Government  Hospital  for  the  Insane  is 
admitted  to  be  due  to  the  ability,  prudence,  fidelity, 
and  good  sense  of  its  accomplished  Superintendent, 
who' has  guided  all  the  expenditures,  from  the  pur- 
chase of  the  ground  to  the  erection  and  completion 
of  the  building,  —  which  is,  undoubtedly,  more  perfect 
in  its  structure,  its  architectural  plan  and  internal 
arrangements,  than  any  similar  one  in  the  country. 
Its  farm,  on  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Potomac,  two 
miles  south  of  the  Capitol,  contains  one  hundred  and 
ninety-five  acres,  and  the  building  is  seven  hundred 
and  twenty  feet  in  length.  No  intelligent  stranger 
remains  in  Washington  for  a  day  without  visiting 
this  noble  institution. 

Equally  praiseworthy  were  Mr.  Williams's  exer- 


32  MEMOIR  OF  HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

tions,  in  conjun6tion  with  Benjamin  Brown,  Esq.,  of 
Vassalboro,  for  providing  relief  for  the  unfortunate 
insane  of  our  own  State.  He  made  a  donation  of 
ten  thousand  dollars  toward  the  foundation  of  the 
Maine  Insane  Hospital,  and  ever  watched  its  success 
with  parental  care.  In  their  late  Report,  the  Trus- 
tees, under  date  of  December  4th,  1862,  say :  — 

"  Since  the  last  meeting  of  the  Trustees,  one  of  the  early  bene- 
factors and  founders  of  this  institution  has  been  called  to  his  rest. 
We  owe  it  to  the  goodness  of  God  that  such  a  man  as  the  Hon. 
Reuel  Williams  has  lived  and  labored  amongst  us.  His  name  and 
many  worthy  deeds  will  long  be  remembered  with  respect  and  with 
gratitude  by  multitudes.  The  fact  that  the  foundations  of  the  hospital 
were  laid  principally  through  his  liberality,  is  too  well  known  to 
need  any  record  here.  But  it  may  not  be  so  widely  known  that 
the  success  and  prosperity  of  the  hospital  are  largely  attributable  to 
his  constant  care  and  watchfulness  over  its  interests  from  the  time 
of  its  first  establishment  to  the  very  close  of  his  useful  life.  For  a 
long  succession  of  years  Mr.  Williams  was  a  leading  member  of  the 
Board  of  Trustees,  and  was  unwearied  in  his  labors  for  securing 
the  best  means  for  the  comfort  and  cure  of  all  who  came  within 
these  walls.  And  even  after  he  resigned  his  seat  in  the  Board,  he 
did  not  cease  to  show  his  deep  interest  in  the  institution,  and  in  what- 
soever related  to  its  prosperity.  Often  have  present  members  of  the 
Board  been  favored  with  his  judicious  suggestions  and  wite  coun- 
sels, that  have  been  of  important  assistance  to  them  in  the  respon- 
sible trust  committed  to  their  hands.  While,  therefore,  we  would 
bow  with  reverent  submission  to  the  All-wise  Disposer  of  all  things, 
in  the  bereavement  which  has  befallen,  us,  we  would  also,  with 
gratitude  to  the  same  great  Being,  cherish  the  memory  of  our 
departed  friend  and  counciljor,  and  strive  to  imitate  his  virtues." 

The  Superintendent,  in  his  Report,  uses  the  fol- 
lowing language : — 

"  It  may  be  well  to  allude  in  this  connection  to  the  loss  the  hos- 


MEMOIR  OF  HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS.  33 

pital  has  sustained  in  the  death  of  one  of  its  founders  and  largest 
private  benefactors.  In  the  decease  of  Hon.  Reuel  Williams,  a 
wide  gap  has  been  made  in  the  circle  of  friends  of  the  insane. 
Early  he  beheld  the  wretched  condition  of  this  unfortunate  class; 
his  eye  pitied,  and  forth  from  his  beneficence  flowed  that  which 
laid  the  foundation-pillars  of  this  noble  structure.  With  a  father's 
care  he  watched  over  the  interests  of  the  hospital  from  its  begin- 
ning, spending  days  of  his  valuable  time  in  devising  means  to  pro- 
mote the  comfort  and  well-being  of  those  who  had  fallen  victims  to 
this  worst  of  human  ills,  and  had  come  hither  for  relief.  For 
more  than  fifteen  years  he  was  an  active  member  of  the  Board  of 
Trustees,  performing  much  of  the  heavy  work  which  devolved  upon 
the  Board,  without  ever  receiving  a  dollar  of  compensation  for  his 
labor  ;  and  when  advancing  years  admonished  him  that  it  was  time 
to  lay  aside  the  cares  of  public  business,  and  Jhe  resigned  the  office 
of  Trustee,  yet  his  interest  in  the  institution  did  not  abate.  Often 
his  thoughts  reverted  to  it,  and  his  steps  were  directed  hither, 
where  his  counsel  and  advice  were  freely  given  to  facilitate  the 
best  good  of  the  Asylum.  And  now,  though  he  rests  from  his 
labors,  though  his  tongue  lies  silent  in  the  grave,  he  yet  speaks  to 
us,  saying :  '  Be  kind  to  the  unfortunate  and  afflicted.' " 

On  the  2d  of  February,  1838,  Mr.  Williams  sub- 
mitted in  the  Senate  the  following  resolution :  — 

"Resolved,  That  the  President  of  the  United  States  be,  and  .he 
hereby  is  requested  to  communicate  to  the  Senate,  in  such  manner 
as  he  may  deem  proper,  all  the  correspondence  recently  received 
and  had  between  this  and  the  Government  of  Great  Britain,  and 
the  State  of  Maine,  on  the  subject  of  the  Northeastern  Boundary, 
which,  in  his  opinion,  may  be  communicated  .consistently  with  the 
public  welfare." 

This  resolution  was  considered  and  agreed  to,  Feb- 
ruary 5th,  1838. 

He  made  his  great  speeches  on  this  question  on 
the  14th  of  May,  1838,  and  on  the  18th  of  June, 
1838.  These  speeches,  and  others  on  the  same 


34  MEMOIR  OF  HON.   REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

subject  in  1842,  are  worthy  of  republication,  as  spe- 
cimens of  effective  public  speaking.  The  "  Bangor 
Democrat,"  speaking  of  the  speech  of  May  14th, 
says :  —  "  Reuel  Williams  delivered  in  the  Senate  a 
speech,  evincing  great  research,  perfect  knowledge 
of  the  subject,  and  remarkable  power."  ,- 

On. the  22d  of  December,  1838,  Mr.  Willjams  sub- 
mitted the  following  resolution,  which  was  considered 
and  adopted :  — 

"  Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  of  War  be  requested  to  communi- 
cate to  the  Senate  such  information  as  may  be  in  his  possession  in 
reference  to  the  defence  of  the  frontier  of  Maine,  and  the  number 
of  troops  now  employed  within  the  State,  and  the  posts  at  which 
they  are  stationed." 

He  opposed  the  Treaty  of  Washington,  and  in 
secret  session,  when  its  ratification  took  place,  he 
moved  its  rejection,  and  that  our  Government  cause 
the  line  to  be  run  and  marked,  according  to  the 
stipulations  of  the  former  treaty. 

The  consummation  of  this  treaty  was  to  him  a 
severe  personal  and  political  mortification,  and  his 
failure  to  prevent  its  ratification  was  one  of  the  re- 
grets of  his  life.  In  reply  to  an  inquiry  why  he  did 
not  defeat  it,  he  said  :  —  "I  depended  on  Judge  Preble. 
He  pledged  to  me  his  word  that  he  would  not  give 
his  assent  to  it.  I  thought  I  could  depend  on  Judge 
Preble,  and  I  left  Washington  for  a  short  visit  to  the 
Virginia  Springs,  with  an  invalid  daughter,  thinking 
the  matter  safe,  and  that  the  assent  of  the  Maine 
Commissioners  would  not  be  given  to  it.  On  my 
return  to  Washington,  I  found  the  Maine  Commis- 


MEMOIR   OF  HON.  EEUEL  WILLIAMS.  35 

sioners,  after  preparing  a  statement  of  reasons  for 
their  refusal,  had  signed  their  names,  consenting  to  the 
treaty,  Preble  with  the  rest,  and  had  left  for  home. 
The  matter  had  then  got  beyond  the  reach  of  any 
power  of  mine." 

Mr.  Williams's  speech  •  in  secret  session,  in  opposi- 
tion to  its  ratification,  was  only  an  indignant  protest 
against  a  foregone  conclusion,  and  he  bore  in  silence 
the  imputation  attempted  to  be  cast  on  him,  of  a 
want  of  frankness  in  relation  to  this  measure,  rather 
than  shield  his  reputation  by  a  profitless  attack  and 
discomfiture  of  those  on  whom  the  real  responsibility 
rested. 

But  it  is  a  credit  to  Mr.  Williams  that  he  saw  in 
advance  what  every  one  now  so  fully  understands 
and  admits,  not  excepting  the  geographers  and 
statesmen  of  England,  —  the  entire  absurdity  and 
falsity  of  the  British  claim. 

Mr.  Williams  was  reflected  to  the  Senate  in  1839, 
for  the  term  of  six  years  from  the  4th  of  March, 
1839,  but  he  retained  his  seat  only  six  years  in  all, 
during  the  sessions  of  the  Twenty-fifth,  Twenty-sixth, 
and  Twenty-seventh  Congress,  resigning  in  1843,  on 
account  of  the  magnitude  of  his  private  interests, 
and  his  indifference  to  the  honors  of  public  life. 

It  is  the  reproach  of  our  system  of  government,  in 
the  estimation  of  intelligent  foreigners,  that  we  have 
no  statesmen  in  public  life,  because  men  pursue 
politics  as  a  trade,  from  motives  of  personal  ambi- 
tion, or  as  a  means  of  livelihood.  It  is  said  that  we 
have  no  retiring  age  for  public  men;  that,  after  going 


36  MEMOIR  OF  HON.  REtJEL  WILLIAMS. 

through  the  routine  of  Congressional  life,  men  turn 
up  as  candidates  for  Door-keeper,  or  appear  as  lobby- 
ists in  the  pay  of  contractors,  or  turn  contractors 
themselves. 

It  is  pleasant  to  turn  to  the  example  of  Mr.  Wil- 
liams, as  a  reply  to  this  satire.  Although  so  many 
years  in  public  life,  in  such  varieties  of  service,  he 
never  sought  office,  and  never  accepted  it  but  in 
subordination  to  a  sense  of  duty  ;  and  he  laid  down 
his  office  or  surrendered  his  trust  the  instant  the 
duty  assigned  him  was  performed.  A  public  and  a 
private  trust  he  considered  equally  sacred.  In  the 
National  and  State  councils,  in  the  several  commis- 
sions he  held,  and  in  the  management  of  the  various 
public  duties  confided  to  him,  his  time  and  his  best 
efforts  were  as  conscientiously  and  fully  devoted,  as 
wrhen  engaged  in  an  important  lawsuit  for  an  exact- 
ing client. 

The  character  of  this  brief  Memoir,  and  the  length 
to  which  it  is  already  drawn,  forbid  more  extended 
comment  on  Mr.  Williams's  senatorial  career,  which 
was  distinguished  throughout  by  marked  ability,  and 
his  accustomed  fidelity  and  independence.  Some 
acts,  however,  deserve  especial  mention  as  indicating 
his  superiority  to  party.  He  opposed  Mr.  Calhoun's 
amendment  to  the  Enlistment  Bill,  which  first  pro- 
hibited the  enlistment  of  blacks  in  the  naval  service ; 
and  he  made  a  speech  in  favor  of,  and  voted  for,  the^ 
Tariff  of  1842,  the  great  Whig  measure  of  the 
Twenty-seventh  Congress,  which,  but  for  his  vote, 
would  have  been  defeated.  To  Senator  Bagby,  of 


MEMOIR  OF  HON.   REUEL  WILLIAMS.  37 

Alabama,  who  made  a  coarse  and  abusive  speech,  in 
the  style  of  that  time  by  the  extreme  Southern  men, 
against  the  people  of  New  England,  Mr.  Williams 
coolly  replied,  telling  the  Senator  from  Alabama 
that,  unfortunately,  he  knew  nothing  of  the  people 
against  whom  he  addressed  his  remarks,  or  he  would 
not  be  guilty  of  such  an  act  of  injustice. 

Although  a  party  man,  Mr.  Williams  never  threw 
a  strictly  party  vote,  or,  in  other  words,  he  voted 
according  to  his  convictions  of  duty,  and  would  not 
surrender  his  judgment  to  any  party.  He  did  what 
he  thought  was  right,  and  voted  against  his  party  on 
all  questions  whenever,  in  his  opinion,  they  were  in 
error.  He  fearlessly  opposed  the  Annexation  of 
Texas,  and  predicted  that  it  would  result  in  a  disso- 
lution of  the  Union  or  a  protracted  civil  war,  an 
event  he  lived  to  witness. 

A  good  illustration  of  Mr.  Williams's  character  is 
shown  in  his  course  on  the  question  of  legislative  in- 
structions. On  accepting  the  Senatorship,  he  avowed 
his  belief  in  the  binding  force  of  instructions,  and  de- 
clared that  in  case  he  could  not  obey  the  instructions 
of  the  Legislature,  he  would  resign.  In  1841  the 
Maine  Legislature,  being  Whig  in  politics,  passed 
resolutions  referring  to  Mr.  Williams's  pledge,  and 
instructing  him,  in  general  terms,  to  vote  for  Whig 
measures  or  resign.  Mr.  Williams  presented  these 
resolutions  to  the  Senate,  and  in  a  speech,  distin- 
guished for  its  clearness  of  statement  and  logical  pre- 
cision, laid  down  the  true  rule  as  to  instructions,  and 
declared  his  readiness  to  vote  for  any  specific  meas- 

4 


38  MEMOIR   OF   HON.   REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

ure  required  of  him,  or  resign  ;  but  he  failed  to  find 
anything  in  the  resolutions  sufficiently  definite  to 
act  upon.  This  ended  the  matter  of  instructions,  for 
no  attempt  to  instruct  him  on  any  particular  question 
or  measure  was  afterward  made,  and  his  exposition 
may  be  fairly  regarded  as  the  admitted  doctrine  on 
that  oft-mooted  question  of  former  times. 

In  retiring  from  the  Senate,  Mr.  Williams  left  it 
with  the  cordial  good-will  of  all  its  members.  A  dis- 
tinguished contemporary,  speaking  to  us  of  his  Sena- 
torial career,  uses  the  following  language  :  — 

"  I  knew  Mr.  Williams  well  whilst  he  and  I  were  together  mem- 
bers of  the  United  States  Senate.  It  was  then  composed  of  some 
of  the  greatest  minds  that  ever  adorned  that  or  any  other  legislative 
body.  Clay,  Webster,  and  Calhoun  were  conspicuous  in  that  bright 
galaxy  of  talent  by  which  they  were  surrounded.  Mr.  Williams 
held  a  rank  and  standing  of  which  his  constituents  and  friends 
might  well  be  proud.  He  was  a  member  of  some  of  the  most  im- 
portant committees,  and  discharged  his  duties  with  great  ability. 
He  investigated  a  subject  thoroughly,  and  in  discussing  it  was 
always  listened  to  with  profound  attention. 

"  He  was  decided  in  his  political  views,  but  mild  and  amiable  in 
presenting  them.  He  commanded  the  respect  of  all  parties,  and  no 
man's  opinions  had  greater  weight  than  his  on  any  question  before 
the  Senate,  when  he  was  known  to  have  brought  to  bear  upon  it  his 
great  talent  for  investigation. 

"  In  his  private  intercourse  he  was  esteemed  and  respected  by 
all.  His  political  opinions  were  always  so  presented  as  to  produce 
no  acerbity  of  feeling  on  the  part  of  political  opponents.  He  was 
unobtrusive  in  his  manners,  coneiliating  in  his  general  deportment, 
and  never  failed  to  command  the  good  opinion  of  those  with  whom 
his  personal  or  business  intercourse  brought  him  into  contact." 

Those  only  can  have  realized  the  true  greatness  of 
Mr.  Williams,  so  quietly  and  unostentatiously  did  he 


MEMOIR  OF  HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS.  39 

move  among  his  fellow-men,  who  saw  him  in  contact 
with  other  great  men,  at  the  Bar,  or  in  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States.  Here  he  was  the  peer  of  the 
greatest.  One  of  the  last,  if  not  the  very  last  cause 
he  argued  in  Court,  out  of  his  county,  was  the  cele- 
brated case  of  Veazie  versus  Wadleigh,  touching  cer- 
tain water  and  shore  rights  at  Oldtown,  on  the 
Penobscot,  before  the  Supreme  Court  at  Bangor,  in 
the  fall  of  1834,  where,  as  counsel  for  Wadleigh  and 
Purinton,  he  argued  their  cause  with  ability  and  suc- 
cess. He  was  of  counsel  for  these  parties  in  the  sub- 
sequent trial  before  Judge  Story,  in  the  Circuit  Court 
of  the  United  States  at  Wiscasset,  with  Daniel  Web- 
ster, Judge  Shepley,  Jonathan  P.  Eogers,  and  the 
writer  of  this  Memoir.  On  the  other  side,  Jeremiah 
Mason,  Frederic  Allen,  and  W.  P.  Fessenden  appeared 
as  counsel.  The  case .  involved  important  interests, 
and  excited  great  attention.  More  time  was  occu- 
pied in  the  few  days  that  this  case  was  before  the 
Court,  in  the  consultations  of  counsel,  than  in  the 
court-room.  In  these  consultations,  the  most  notice- 
able fact  of  all  was  the  extraordinary  deference  which 
Mr.  Webster  paid  to  Mr.  Williams.  Although  one 
year  older  than  Mr.  Williams,  and  at  that  time  in 
the  full  flush  of  success  and  in  the  zenith  of  his 
power  as  master  of  eloquence  and  argument,  he 
deferred  to  Mr.  Williams's  opinions  or  suggestions 
as  to  a  superior,  although,  by  long  and  careful  in- 
vestigation and  preparation,  as  fully  conversant  with 
all  the  facts,  and  the  law  of  the  case.  This  high 
estimate  of  Mr.  Williams,  Mr.  Webster  always  re- 


40  MEMOIR  OF  HON.   REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

tained,  amid  all  their  open  conflicts,  and  their  subse- 
quent collisions  in  public  life,  growing  out  of  the 
Northeastern  Boundary  Dispute  and  the  party  con- 
tests of  the  time. 

One  who  knew  him  long  and  well  says :  — 

"  He  had  a  remarkably  clear  insight  into  character.  Sometimes 
he  withheld  his  confidence,  where  apparently  it  might  safely  have 
been  given  ;  but  subsequent  events  rarely  failed  to  show  that  what 
was  attributed  to  prejudice  was  due  only  to  foresight.  Frank, 
honorable,  and  upright  himself,  het scorned  indirection  and  trickery 
in  another ;  never  idle,  and  always  truthful,  he  despised  a  sluggard, 
and  detested  a  liar.  His  temperament  was  remarkably  calm  and 
equable.  In  the  ups  and  downs  of  a  long  and  busy  life,  he  was 
rarely  elated  by  gains  or  depressed  by  losses.  He  seemed  to  view 
the  result  of  whatever  he  had  deliberately  undertaken  with  a  philo- 
sophical indifference." 

Mr.  Williarns's  superiority  in  public  life  was  seen  in 
his  elevation  of  purpose  and  freedom  from  all  inferior 
or  unworthy  motives.  He  never  considered  the  effect 
of  his  vote,  or  of  a  measure  under  consideration,  upon 
his  party  or  upon  himself.  He  had  no  anxiety  to 
shape  his  policy  to  suit  an  existing  prejudice,  or  to 
satisfy  an  unreasonable  demand.  He  had  no  aspira- 
tions for  a  higher  place,  and  no  desire  to  retain  his 
seat  in  the  Senate  beyond  the  time  when  he  felt  he 
had  accomplished  there  what  good  it  was  possible  for 
him  to  achieve.  As  he  entered  the  Senate  at  a  time 
when  the  most  fearful  and  gloomy  apprehensions 
overspread  the  nation,  amid  financial  embarrassments 
consequent  on  unwise  tariffs;  with  commercial  credit 
at  its  lowest  point,  and  the  insane  cry  against  the  in- 
troduction of  foreign  capital  echoed  far  and  wide  by 


MEMOIR   OF  HON.   REUEL  WILLIAMS.  41 

the  leaders  of  the  Democratic  party ;  he  knew  that 
the  only  mode  of  sustaining  public  credit  was  by  the 
enactment  of  a  Protective  Tariff;  and  the  only  method 
of  giving  value  to  property  and  diffusing  prosperity 
among  the  people  was  by  allowing  unfortunate  debt- 
ors to  go  free  under  a  General  Bankrupt  law,  while 
proper  encouragement  was  given  to  home  industry. 
He  remained  in  Congress  to  vote  for  these  measures, 
in  opposition  to  the  popular  feeling  of  his  party,  and 
he  boldly  stood  up  for  what  he  thought  was  right, 
regardless  of  the  clamor  of  the  shallow  politicians  of 
the  hour.  He  left  the  Senate  after  these  measures 
were  consummated,  with  the  consciousness  and  the 
conviction  that  his  duties  in  that  field  of  labor  had 
been  faithfully  and  fully  performed. 

The  example  of  Mr.  Williams,  at  a  period  when  the 
possession  of  a  place  was  used  as  a  mere  stepping- 
stone  to  another  and  a  higher  one,  deserves  to  be  held 
up  for  admiration  in  contrast  with  the  prevailing  ten- 
dency of  the  times.  No  one,  or  scarcely  one,  could 
be  found  in  office  contented  with  the  discharge  of  its 
duties ;  and  we  trace  to  this  cause  our  political 
troubles,  the  derangements  of  the  currency,  the  sla- 
very agitation,  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  Compro- 
mise, and  its  consequent  evils  culminating  in  the 
present  civil  war. 

It  will  not  be  thought  out  of  place  to  refer,  in 
this  connection,  as  in  striking  contrast  to  Mr.  Wil- 
liams's  example,  to  a  contemporary  statesman  a  few 
months  his  senior,  who  departed  this  life  only  a  few 
hours  before  Mr.  Williams,  and  who,  having  passed 

4* 


42  MEMOIR  OF  HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

through  all  the  gradations  of  public  honors  and 
offices  —  Governor  of  the  Empire  State,  Senator  in 
Congress,  Secretary  of  State,  Minister  to  the  Court  of 
St.  James,  Vice-President,  and  finally  President  of  the 
United  States,  left  on  record  by  his  will,  dated  Janu- 
ary 18,  1860,  this  memorable  confession :  — 

"  I,  Martin  Van  Buren,  of  the  town  of  Kinderhook,  county  of 
Columbia,  and  State  of  New  York,  heretofore  Governor  of  the 
State,  and  more  recently  President  of  the  United  States,  but  for  the 
last  and  happiest  year  of  my  life  a  farmer  in  my  native  town,  do  make 
and  declare  the  following  to  be  my  last  will  and  testament,"  &c. 

The  fact  of  Van  Buren's  election  to  the  Presidency 
gave  him  no  real  satisfaction,  for  his  joy  was  turned 
to  sadness,  and  his  cup  of  happiness  poisoned  by  sub- 
sequent defeats ;  and  never  did  he  find  so  much  satis- 
faction as  in  the  quiet  of  rural  pursuits.  If  we  recall 
the  history  of  other  of  Mr.  Williams's  contemporaries 
in  the  Senate,  —  Clay,  "Webster,  Calhoun,  Cass,  and 
Benton,  leaders  in  those  days  who  never  reached  the 
Presidency ;  or  Pierce  and  Buchanan  who  did,  —  we 
shall  be  struck  with  the  singular  infelicity  of  their 
political  career,  from  disappointments  like  those  of 
Van  Buren,  or  worse  results  than  defeat. 

We  esteem  it  fortunate  that  an  example  like  that 
of  Mr.  Williams  remains  to  us,  that  no  feeling  of  un- 
satisfied political  ambition  disquieted  his  subsequent 
life,  and  that  he  had  the  good  •  sense  and  self-respect 
to  decline  a  seat  in  the  Cabinet,  virtually  proffered 
him,  for  which,  by  his  great  experience  on  the  Com- 
mittee on  Naval  Affairs  in  the  Senate  and  his  admi- 
rable executive  ability,  he  was  so  preeminently 


MEMOIR  OF  HON.   REUEL  WILLIAMS.  43 

qualified.  But  greater  than  all  was  the  value  of  his 
example,  in  the  healthfulness  of  its  tone,  in  his  free- 
dom from  those  "infirmities  of  genius"  that  regard 
imprudence  in  personal  habits,  extravagance,  and  de- 
bauchery as  the  necessary  conditions  of  public  life. 
It  was  the  fault  of  the  time  to  regard  politicians  as 
necessarily  heedless  and  improvident,  and  that  for 
them  there  must  be  pensions  and  subscriptions,  as  if 
such  men  were  not  expected  to  foresee  the  conse- 
quences of  their  own  weakness  and  folly.  Mr.  Wil- 
liams saw  all  this  in  its  true  light,  —  that  the  only 
true  basis  of  political  power  and  influence  was  a  lofty 
independence  that  scorned  alike  the  thought  that  a 
pension  was  a  mark  of  honor,  or  that  his  party  had 
any  right  to  treat  him  as  a  hireling  and  a  mendicant. 
Simple  in  his  habits,  generous  in  his  mode  of  living, 
he  made  no  concessions  of  his  personal  independence 
to  any  of  the  arbitrary  and  capricious  demands  of 
fashion  or  of  party,  and  pursued  the  even  tenor  of 
his  way,  not  only  in  the  Senate,  but  in  all  his  private 
walks  to  the  close  of  his  earthly  career.  His  whole 
life  in  business,  in  the  family  circle,  and  in  public 
station,  seemed,  in  a  measure,  mechanical,  —  like  a 
well-ordered  machine,  where  each  part,  obeying  its 
organic  law,  in  subordination  to  a  higher  principle, 
ran  on,  with  an  unvarying  and  steady  movement,  till 
it  fulfilled  its  mission,  and  the  fine  frame  that  held 
the  informing  spirit  ceased  to  move. 

At  the  ripe  age  of  sixty,  in  the  full  strength  of  his 
intellectual  and  physical  powers,  without  any  unsatis- 
fied desire,  he  resigned  his  seat  in  the  Senate,  with 


44  MEMOIR   OF   HON.   REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

two  years  more  of  his  term  before  him,  in  the  full 
expectation  of  retiring  altogether  from  public  service. 
But  new  labors  awaited  him.  The  country  rapidly 
recovered  from  its  six  years  of  exhaustion  —  from 
1836  to  1842  — under  the  influence  of  the  Tariff  of 
1842,  and  in  1844  the  spirit  of  improvement  reached 
Maine,  and  her  people  began  to  entertain  the  subject 
of  railroads.  The  drain  on  its  population  consequent 
on  the  building  of  railways  and  factories  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  elsewhere,  with  the  tendency  to  emigrate 
West,  had  begun  to  draw  upon  the  strength  of  the 
State,  and  to  excite  alarm  ;  and  it  was  seen  and  felt 
that,  in  spite  of  the  limited  amount  of  our  realized 
capital,  Maine  must  embark  in  these  improvements 
or  fall  behind  in  the  race. 

Mr.  Williams  looked  upon  these  movements  as  pre- 
mature ;  and  in  the  winter  of  1843-4,  when  the  proj- 
ect of  a  railway  from  Portland  to  Bath  was  acted  on, 
he  took  very  little  if  any  interest  in  it.  In  the 
western  portion  of  the  State,  an  intense  and  bitter 
hostility  to  railways  had  been  engendered,  by  the 
course  adopted  in  the  construction  of  a  line  into 
Portland  by  parties  residing  out  of  the  State,  in  ex- 
tension of  the  line  from  Boston.  This  feeling  had 
full  sway  in  the  Legislature  of  1844,  and  no  satisfac- 
tory charter  could  be  obtained.  Legislation  of  the 
most  hostile  character  against  existing  lines  of  rail- 
way was  carried  through,  in  sympathy  with  the  feel- 
ing in  New  Hampshire.  The  railway  question  had 
been  made  a  political  party  question,  the  Whigs 
favoring,  and  the  Democratic  party  opposing.  Mr. 


MEMOIR   OF  HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS.  45 

Williams  had  no  sympathy  with  this  party  feeling, 
but  he  knew  the  expensive  character  of  railways,  and 
saw  no  means  adequate  to  their  immediate  construc- 
tion, and  that  their  first  effect  would  be  to  carry  off 
business  from  the  State. 

In  the  autumn  of  1844,  when  the  plan  of  a  railway 
from  Montreal  to  the  Atlantic  was  proposed,  the  de- 
sign was  to  have  two  outlets — one  to  reach  the  ocean 
at  Portland,  and  the  other,  embranching  in  the  An- 
droscoggin  Valley  at  Rumford  or  Bethel,  to  extend 
to  Augusta,  and  from  thence  to  Bangor  eastward, 
and  to  Bath. 

The  people  of  Portland  promptly  fell  into  the  sup- 
port of  the  project ;  those  of  Augusta  disregarded  the 
proposal.  The  Montreal  Railway  project  took  im- 
mediate possession  of  the  public  mind  of  the  State. 
The  "Eastern  Argus,"  the  leading  organ  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party,  took  the  strongest  ground  in  its  sup- 
port, and  its  conductors  made  no  secret  of  their 
design  to  throw  party  overboard  on  the  railway 
question,  and,  if  need  be,  break  down  their  party  in 
the  State  on  it,  rather  than  longer  forego  the  ad- 
vantages of  railroads. 

The  result  was  not  long  doubtful.  The  leaders  of 
both  parties  vied  with  each  other  in  their  zeal  for 
railways ;  and  by  a  single  stride,  with  scarcely  any 
opposition,  Maine  changed  front  on  the  railway 
question,  and  adopted  the  most  liberal  policy  of  any 
State  in  the  Union.  This  unanimity  of  sentiment 
was  Maine's  chief  capital ;  and  thinking  men  foresaw 
the  result,  in  the  sure  accomplishment  of  the  great- 


46  MEMOIR  OF  HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

est  public  work  of  the  day,  taking  into  account 
its  international  character,  and  its  influence  on  the 
course  of  trade  and  of  public  opinion.  The  geo- 
graphical and  commercial  importance  of  Maine  was 
in  a  measure  realized  by  the  more  intelligent  of  its 
people. 

The  putting  of  this  project  into  execution  led  to 
the  adoption  of  another  —  the  extension  of  a  line  in 
connection  with  the  Montreal  Railroad  to  Bangor 
and  the  East.  The  development  of  this  plan  roused 
the  lower  Kennebec,  and  her  people  came  forward 
with  a  renewal  of  their  project  —  a  line  of  rail- 
way from  Portland  to  Augusta,  with  a  branch  to 
Bath. 

These  rival  movements  aroused  the  whole  State, 
including  Mr.  Williams,  who,  from  his  great  wealth, 
known  sagacity,  and  public  spirit,  was  necessarily  to 
become  a  leader  in  them.  Yet  he  held  back  rather 
than  pressed  forward  at  the  start.  But  events 
moved  rapidly.  An  effort  to  unite  all  interests  in 
the  State,  by  swinging  the  Trunk  Line  to  Montreal 
as  far  east  as  Lewiston,  an  extension  thence  to  Gar- 
diner and  up  the  Kennebec  River,  with  a  branch  to 
Brunswick  and  Bath,  failed  of  success,  from  the  un- 
willingness of  Mr.  Williams  and  his  associates  to  de- 
sert the  line  of  policy  unfortunately  agreed  on  with 
the  leading  citizens  of  Bath  and  Brunswick. 

Two  rival  schemes  went  forward,  soon  involving  a 
war  of  the  gauges,  for  the  Atlantic  and  St.  Lawrence 
Railroad  Company  and  the  Androscoggin  and  Ken- 
nebec Railroad  Company  adopted  an  independent 


MEMOIR   OF  HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS.  47 

guage  of  five  and  a  half  feet,  upon  the  fullest  con- 
sideration of  its  advantages,  while  the  Kennebec  and 
Portland  Railroad  Company  adhered  to  the  plan  of  a 
narrow-gauge  line,  in  view  of  a  connection  with  the 
line  of  railway  to  Boston. 

From  the  autumn  of  1846,  the  war  of  rival  inter- 
ests was  fiercely  waged,  subordinating  nearly  all,  if 
not  every  other  public  question  in  the  State  to  this, 
till,  on  the  completion  of  the  "Back  fioute1'  to  Water- 
ville,  in  advance  of  the  construction  of  the  narrow- 
gauge  line  to  Augusta,  Mr.  Williams  frankly  admit- 
ted their  great  error.  He  entered  the  Legislature  in 
1848,  as  the  Representative  from  Augusta,  and  en- 
deavored to  break  the  chain  of  charters  that  held 
in  check  all  extension  of  railways  above  Augusta, 
in  connection  with  the  narrow  gauge,  but  in  this  he 
was  for  the  time  defeated.  He  had  not  over-esti- 
mated his  own  power,  so  much  as  he  had  undervalued 
the  strength  of  his  opponents.  He  saw  clearly  the 
disastrous  consequences  to  his  own  fortune  of  the 
policy  of  rival  lines,  and  he  frankly  inquired  for  con- 
ditions of  peace.  Those  agreed  on  were,  an  aban- 
donment of  any  purpose  to  extend  a  rival  line  on  the 
narrow  gauge  to  Bangor,  and  the  unanimous  support 
of  a  broad-gauge  line  from  Waterville  east,  with 
suitable  arrangements  for  connection  at  the  point  of 
crossing  of  the  narrow-gauge  line  from  Augusta  up 
the  Kennebec  River. 

This  arrangement,  on  his  part,  was  faithfully  ob- 
served and  kept ;  the  restriction  on  the  right  to  ex- 
tend a  line  from  Augusta  up  the  Kennebec  River 


48  MEMOIR   OF   HON.   REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

was  taken  off,  and  the  broad-gauge  line  was  extend- 
ed from  Waterville,  in  connection  with  the  Andros- 
coggin  and  Kennebec  Railroad,  to  Bangor. 

Mr.  Williams  took  great  interest  in  the  project  of 
the  railway  from  Bangor  to  St.  John  and  Halifax, 
attended  the  celebration  at  the  breaking  of  ground 
on  the  European  and  North-American  Railway,  at 
St.  John,  was  a  director  in  the  Maine-  corporation, 
and  a  party  to  the  provisional  contract  for  the  con- 
struction of  the  line  through  Maine,  by  Jackson  and 
Betts,  which  fell  through  from  a  failure  to  secure 
the  necessary  legislation  in  Maine,  on  account  of  the 
opposition  of  parties  interested  in  the  contract  for 
building  the  line  from  Waterville  to  Bangor.  The 
Crimean  War  soon  after  followed,  and  the  people  of 
Bangor  discovered,  when  it  was  too  late,  their  error 
in  not  allowing  the  granting  of  a  charter,  adequate 
to  the  requirements  of  the  enterprise.  But  for  this 
short-sightedness,  the  entire  capital  for  the  line  from 
Waterville  to  Halifax  would  have  been  provided, 
before  the  European  war  of  1853-4  had  disturbed 
the  money  market  of  England. 

This  railway  war,  in  our  State,  has  been  the  pro- 
lific cause  of  disaster  to  many  a  private  fortune,  and 
embittered,  for  the  time,  some  sections  against 
others.  But  such  is  the  peculiar  configuration  of 
the  State,  and  so  great  was  the  isolation  from  each 
other  of  the  various  sections  before  the  advent  of 
railways,  that,  from  want  of  unity  in  purpose  and 
plan,  it  may  fairly  be  doubted  if  a  single  line  could 
so  soon  have  gone  forward  and  been  extended  to 


MEMOIR   OF    HON.   REUEL  WILLIAMS.  49 

Bangor,  or  to  the  Kennebec,  but  for  this  rivalry. 
The  public,  as  a  whole,  were  the  gainers,  but  there 
was  a  painful  loss  entailed  on  the  original  stockhold- 
ers and  bondholders.  Of  this  class  Mr.  Williams 
was  the  largest  loser.  He  invested  of  his  own  for- 
tune more  than  three  hundred  thousand  dollars,  and 
sacrificed  more  than  two  thirds  of  that  sum  in  this 
railroad,  to  say  nothing  of  the  indirect  losses  that 
followed,  and  the  devotion  of  more  than  fifteen 
years  of  his  life.  But  when  the  sacrifice  had  been 
made,  he  looked  philosophically  at  the  result,  and 
said  :  "  I  do  not,  on  the  whole,  regret  it.  I  doubt  if 
my  time  and  money  could  have  accomplished  so 
much  good  in  any  other  way."  Some  things  had 
stung  him  deeply;  such  as  the  repudiation  of  original 
liability,  pleaded  by  way  of  defence,  on  a  suit  on 
coupons,  upon  certain  city  bonds  which  had  been 
issued  to  aid  the  construction  of  the  Kennebec  and 
Portland  Railroad,  of  which  he  was  the  President; 
as  if  the  plea  of  payment  was  not  sufficient,  or  all 
that  an  honorable  defence  would  justify.  He  also 
felt  the  injustice  of  the  refusal,  by  his  associates,  of 
that  support  which  they  had  promised  him  in  the 
hour  of  the  greatest  pecuniary  difficulties  of  the 
Railroad  Company,  in  case  he  gave  out  his  own  per- 
sonal obligations,  to  avoid  the  sacrifice  impending 
over  it.  But  he  was  too  much  a  man  of  the  world 
to  make  private  griefs  public,  and  suffered  in  silence 
the  consequences  of  his  own  generosity  and  public 
spirit. 

It  is  true  Mr.  Williams  had,  of  necessity,  kept  a 


50  MEMOIR  OF    HON.   REUEL   WILLIAMS. 

show  of  courage  amid  the  difficulties  that  surrounded 
the  construction  of  so  expensive  a  line  of  railroad,  or 
its  ruin  would  have  been  inevitable.  But  he  refused 
to  desert  his  post,  or  take  any  advantage  to  himself. 
He  relied  upon  that  good  faith  and  that  sense  of 
honor  which  he  himself  respected,  and  saw,  in  his 
old  age,  the  dropping  out,  one  after  another,  of 
those  on  whose  good  faith  he  had  relied  for  agreed 
contributions  toward  his  advances,  with  the  same 
sort  of  feeling  as  one  looks  at  the  follies  of  youth, 
"more  in  sorrow  than  in  anger."  Wearied  with  the 
delays  of  the  Court  in  deciding  controverted  points, 
he  made  the  best  terms  he  could  by  amicable  adjust- 
ment of  his  claims,  and  philosophically  gave  his 
thoughts  to  other  matters.  Other  men  contributed 
liberally,  some  perhaps  as  freely  as  himself,  in  pro- 
portion to  their  means,  but  it  is  not  hazarding  any- 
thing to  say  that,  but  for  Mr.  Williams,  the  rail- 
road could  not  so  soon,  if  ever,  have  been  built  to 
Augusta. 

No  man  in  our  State,  or  in  New  England,  ever 
passed  through  such  a  trial  of  strength,  both  of  char- 
acter and  fortune,  as  Mr.  Williams  suffered  for  fifteen 
years,  from  the  time  of  the  inception  of  the  railroad 
enterprise  till  he  closed  his  connection  with  it  in 
1861.  His  hitherto  unconquered  will  regarded  no 
labor  too  arduous,  no  effort  of  mind  too  great,  no 
sacrifice  of  private  fortune  too  large,  for  the  successful 
accomplishment  of  what  he  deemed  a  necessary  pub- 
lic work ;  while  he,  at  the  same  time,  realized  what 
all  men  of  true  public  spirit  and  of  generous  natures 


MEMOIR  OF  HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS.  51 

know,  that,  for  any  great  work  done  for  the  public, 
the  only  present  reward  will  be  the  ill-will  of  the 
sluggish,  the  envy  of  the  narrow-minded,  and  the 
hatred  of  all  those  most  benefited  by  his  labors. 

But  death  robs  envy  of  its  sting,  and  a  wiser  ap- 
preciation of  the  value  to  themselves  of  the  labor  of 
another  gradually  eradicates  the  hatred  of  compeers 
and  competitors.  De  Witt  Clinton  was  deprived  of 
his  office  as  Canal  Commissioner,  the  emoluments 
of  which  were  esteemed  by  him  as  a  means  of  support 
of  a  large  family,  as  he  declined  to  profit  from  pub- 
lic employment ;  but  a  returning  sense  of  justice  has 
made  his  name  renowned  and  honored  everywhere. 

Having  closed  an  agreement  for  the  sale  of  his  in- 
terest in  the  railroad,  in  September,  1861,  Mr.  Williams 
again  became  free  of  public  cares.  But  new  duties 
still  awaited  him.  In  the  month  of  October  follow- 
ing, though  then  in  the  seventy-eighth  year  of  his 
age,  he  yielded  to  the  earnest  solicitation  of  Governor 
Washburn,  and  accepted  the  appointment  of  Com- 
missioner of  Maine  to  Washington,  in  response  to 
the  invitation  of  the  United  States  Government,  to 
inaugurate  a  system  of  defences  for  the  loyal  States. 
This  Commission  was  dated  the  23d  of  October,  1861, 
and  on  the  1st  of  November  Mr.  Williams  reached 
Washington  in  the  discharge  of  its  duties,  —  his  first 
visit  since  his  resignation  of  the  office  of  Senator 
eighteen  years  before.  One  only  of  the  old  employes 
of  the  Senate  of  his  time  remained.  Asbury  Dickens, 
Secretary  of  the  Senate,  had,  a  few  months  before,  at 
the  age  of  ninety-four,  been  gathered  to  his  fathers, 


52  MEMOIR   OF   HON.   REUEL   WILLIAMS. 

and  the  Senate  Chamber  of  1843  had  been  assigned 
to  the  Supreme  Court,  and  new  Halls,  with  ample 
apartments,  were  now  occupied  by  the  Senate  and 
the  House.  Elisha  Whittlesey,  the  upright  First 
Comptroller  of  the  Treasury,  of  the  same  age  with 
himself,  was  discharging  with  his  accustomed  vigor 
the  duties  of  his  office.  But  he,  too,  has  recently  been 
called  away  at  the  summons  of  death.  A  few  men  of 
other  days  remained  of  those  in  office  when  Mr.  Wil- 
liams left  public  life.  But  it  was  a  pleasing  sight  to 
witness  the  deference  everywhere  paid  him,  for  no 
man  ever  left  Washington  with  a  purer  reputation. 

Mr.  Williams  grew  impatient  at  times  at  the  delays 
consequent  on  the  absence  of  the  public  officials,  but 
remained  some  weeks,  until  an  agreement  was  made 
with  the  Administration  that  it  would  enter  at  once 
upon  the  defence  of  the  State,  and  accept  the  money 
needed  therefor  from  the  State  Treasury,  on  the  issue 
to  it,  in  return,  of  twenty  years  six  per  cent,  bonds. 

On  the  receipt  of  the  official  note  of  the  Secretary 
of  War,  setting  forth  the  terms  of  the  arrangement, 
Mr.  Williams  left  for  Maine.  But  before  his  departure 
he  joined  in  an  application  to  the  Secretary  of  War 
for  the  putting  in  progress  the  work  on  the  Fort  at 
the  mouth  of  the  Kennebec,  and  another  for  giving 
it  the  name  it  now  bears,  both  of  which  were  suc- 
cessful. 

This  was  the  close  of  his  public  life.  Up  to  this 
time,  no  one  could  perceive  any  diminution  of  his 
powers  of  mind,  and  scarcely  any  abatement  of  his 
physical  activity,  except  a  slight  defect  in  hearing 


MEMOIR   OF   HON.   REUEL  WILLIAMS.  53 

and  a  more  measured  gait.  At  "Washington  he  visited 
all  the  public  places  and  military  parades,  regardless 
of  the  weather ;  climbed  all  the  staircases  and  galle- 
ries of  the  new  Capitol,  the  Insane  Hospital,  and  the 
various  public  offices,  with  apparent  ease ;  and  he  re- 
ceived and  returned  calls  from  his  numerous  friends 
of  other  days. 

He  had  urged,  as  an  objection  to  his  acceptance  of 
this  Commission  from  Governor  "Washburn,  the  fact  of 
his  age,  and  his  unwillingness  to  take  a  place  calling 
for  active  service  that  could  be  better  performed  by 
another  and  younger  man.  But  on  learning  fully 
Governor  Washburn's  policy,  and  perceiving  how 
deeply  he  felt  the  necessity  of  his  acceptance  of  that 
trust,  he  yielded  his  objections ;  for  he  realized  the 
importance  of  the  occasion,  and  the  value  of  the  op- 
portunity afforded  by  this  invitation  of  the  President 
for  establishing  the  claims  of  Maine  upon  the  Gene- 
ral Government,  and  of  initiating  a  policy  for  the 
State. 

It  proved  what  Governor  Washburn  intimated  to 
him  might  possibly  turn  out  to  be  the  case,  —  "his  last 
public  service,  the  graceful  rounding  off  of  a  long  life 
of  public  usefulness  and  duty."  The  complete  suc- 
cess of  the  Commission,  and  the  unanimity  with 
which  the  Legislature  of  Maine  adopted  and  followed 
out  the  policy  of  Governor  Washburn,  -was  to  Mr. 
Williams  a  grateful  and  satisfactory  reward.  He  re- 
garded the  policy  thus  entered  upon  as  destined  to 
final  and  full  success,  requiring  only  the  persistent 
efforts  of  the  State  Government  to  this  end. 

5* 


54  MEMOIR   OF  HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

Returning  from  Washington  in  November,  1861. 
he  was  taken  down  with  a  severe  attack  of  catarrhal 
fever,  probably  aggravated,  if  not  induced,  by  the  ex- 
citements and  exposures  of  his  long  journey.  For 
some  time  his  recovery  seemed  doubtful.  But  his 
iron  frame  withstood  the  attack,  and  after  some 
months  of  confinement  he  regained  sufficient  strength 
to  attend  to  business,  —  a  new  call  being  made  upon 
him  to  rebuild,  on  the  site  of  his  former  office,  an 
elegant  and  more  valuable  block  of  stores,  in  place 
of  one  swept  away  by  fire.  He  went  into  this  work 
with  his  accustomed  energy.  He  carried  out,  too,  in 
June,  1862,  his  purpose  of  a  business  visit  to  Boston. 
On  his  return  from  Boston,  on  the  4th  of  July,  his 
friends  were,  for  the  first  time,  admonished  of  his  fail- 
ing strength.  He  soon  perceived  this  himself,  and 
said:  —  "I  do  not  get  any  stronger;  and  I  do  not  know 
as  I  desire  to."  But  a  day  before  his  death,  though 
confined  to  his  house,  he  seemed  so  well  that  his  son 
went  to  Portland  on  business,  not  deeming  him  so 
near  his  end. 

On  the  24th  of  July  he  sank  rapidly,  and  was  fully 
conscious  of  the  approach  of  death.  Observing  his 
only  brother  near  him,  he  quietly  said,  "You  have 
come  to  see  the  last  of  me,  Daniel ;  we  may  as  well 
take  leave  of  each  other  now,"  and  they  shook 
hands. 

To  his  granddaughter,  who  was  in  the  room  at 
eleven  o'clock  in  the  evening,  and  of  whom  he  was 
very  fond,  he  said,  "  You  had  better  go  to  bed,  Anna," 
and  he  kissed  her  and  sent  her  away. 


MEMOIR   OF  HON.   REUEL  WILLIAMS.  55 

Calm  and  unruffled,  as  in  the  days  of  his  manly 
strength,  he  cheerfully  awaited  the  summons  of  death 
with  the  dignity  of  a  philosopher  and  the  meekness 
of  a  Christian.  At  one  o'clock  on  the  morning  of 
Friday,  July  25th,  1862,  the  life  of  Reuel  Williams 
on  earth  was  no  more. 

In  this  hurried  and  imperfect  sketch  of  the  more 
salient  features  of  Mr.  Williams's  career,  doubtless 
many  things  are  omitted  which  might  have  been  ap- 
propriately referred  to,  had  the  duty  fallen  on  the 
writer  of  it  in  season  for  a  fuller  preparation,  or  at 
a  time  when  his  thoughts  could  have  been  uninter- 
ruptedly given  to  it.  A  sense  of  obligation  to  the 
illustrious  deceased,  and  a  vivid  appreciation  of  the 
eminence  of  his  virtues  and  the  greatness  of  his  char- 
acter, alone  justified  this  effort  to  place  in  the  ar- 
chives of  our  Society  some  facts  calculated  to  per- 
petuate his  memory.  The  task  should  have  fallen 
on  one  nearer  his  own  age,  more  familiar  with  his 
early  life,  and  better  fitted  by  habits  of  study,  and 
as  a  writer,  to  do  justice  to  so  noble  a  man. 

Numerous,  varied,  and  invaluable  as  were  Mr. 
Williams's  public  labors,  they  were  far  less  deserving 
of  praise  than  his  private  life.  Public  employment 
sometimes  destroys  or  unfits  one  for  the  duties  of  a 
good  citizen,  often  the  most  trying  of  all.  Mr.  Wil- 
liams's public  and  professional  labors  did  not  with- 
draw his  attention  from  the  ordinary  duties  of  daily 
life  as  a  citizen,  a  neighbor,  and  a  friend.  The  care 
of  schools,  the  education  of  the  young,  the  opening 


56  MEMOIR   OF  HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

of  highways,  the  establishment  of  lines  of  communi- 
cation by  means  of  stage-coaches  and  of  steamboats, 
before  the  advent  of  railways,  were  among  the  mat- 
ters carefully  looked  after  by  him,  as  well  as  the 
building  of  churches,  hotels,  and  other  public  edi- 
fices. He  was  an  advocate,  and  an  exemplar,  too,  of 
the  doctrine  of  "  encouragement  to  home  industry," 
in  the  building  of  foundries,  factories,  and  other 
works  for  employing  labor  and  capital.  He  was  the 
chief  promoter,  if  not  the  original  projector,  of  that 
noble  line  of  stages  between  Augusta  and  Bangor, 
which  had  no  superior  in  the  United  States.  He  had 
a  large  interest  in  the  Augusta  Dam,  built  in  1837. 
Though  slow  to  come  into  the  plan  of  building  it, — 
distrustful,  inasmuch  as  it  had,  at  its  inception,  no 
secure  ledge  foundation,  —  after  it  was  once  enter- 
ed upon,  he  gave  to  it  his  generous  support,  and 
finally  the  whole  rested  on  his  shoulders.  When  this 
dam  was  carried  away  in  1839,  creating  so  much 
consternation  and  alarm,  he  alone  of  all  the  people 
of  the  city,  was  calm  and  unruffled.  An  eminent 
lawyer  of  his  own  age,  speaking  of  him,  says  :  "  His 
firmness  and  immovability  were  strongly  tested  in 
disaster  as  well  as  in  success ;  the  reminiscent  saw 
him,  immediately  after  the  destruction  of  the  Kenne- 
bec  Dam  at  Augusta ;  when  every  one  else  seemed 
excited  and  agitated,  he  alone  was  calm  and  tran- 
quil." 

Subsequently,  when  the  ledge  revealed  itself  on 
the  western  shore  of  the  river,  Mr.  Williams's  confi- 
dence in  the  dam  was  established.  Valuable  invest- 


MEMOIR  OF  HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS.  57 

ments  in  the  shape  of  factories  and  workshops  are 
now  planted  there,  in  which  he  was  largely  inter- 
ested. 

It  has  been  shown  by  a  recent  writer  that  great 
vital  power  is  essential  to  eminent  success ;  that  no 
man  has  reached  the  highest  attainments  in  science, 
art,  law,  politics,  or  arms,  without  extraordinary 
vital  force.  Without  this  organic  power,  no  one  can 
sustain  that  intense,  long-continued  application,  that 
is  essential  to  the  mastery  of  the  more  difficult  prob- 
lems in  abstract  science,  or  the  practical  solution  of 
the  novel  questions  that  arise  in  public  affairs. 

Mr.  Williams,  no  doubt,  owed  much  of  his  success 
to  his  naturally  fine,  physical  organization.  Not 
large,  or  much  above  the  average  of  men  in  physical 
stature,  he  had  a  close-knit,  compact,  sturdy,  mus- 
cular frame.  The  labors  of  early  life  strengthened 
his  bodily  powers,  which  his  cheerful  temper,  upright 
life,  and  industrious  habits,  kept  free  of  all  excesses, 
so  that  he  never  wasted  his  life  physically,  nor  his 
mind  by  any  indolence  or  neglect,  while  his  moral 
sense  had  all  the  instinctive  quickness  of  a  sensitive 
nature,  rendered  active  by  watchful  practice ;  so 
that  he  had  in  early  life  the  most  extraordinary  self- 
reliance  and  self-control,  and  he  seemed  to  those  who 
knew  him  far  older  than  his  years,  and  almost  too 
precise  and  methodical  for  a  man  of  ordinary  im- 
pulses. 

A  striking  trait  in  Mr.  Williams's  character  was  a 
habit  of  early  rising,  commenced  in  boyhood,  and 
continued  through  life.  He  was  always  prompt  at 


58  MEMOIR   OF   HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

his  post,  whether  at  school,  in  his  office,  or  other  posi- 
tion. He  invariably  took  the  earliest  hours  of  the 
morning  for  the  performance  of  labor,  and  was  thus 
enabled  to  accomplish  more  than  others.  By  sys- 
tematic use  of  time,  he  achieved  more,  in  the  fruits 
of  labor,  than  any  one  known  to  me.  He  could  sus- 
tain the  most  exhausting  intellectual  effort  without 
apparent  fatigue.  He  had  extraordinary  powers  of 
abstraction,  so  that  he  could  give  his  mind  fully  to 
the  investigation  of  any  required  subject,  withdraw- 
ing his  thoughts  from  other  topics,  till  he  mastered 
all  its  details  of  fact  and  comprehended  the  princi- 
ples involved  ;  and  then  turn  his  mind  upon  another 
matter  equally  difficult,  without  any  confusion  of 
ideas  or  loss  of  perceptive  power.  When  his  mind 
had  been  called  to  examine  a  question,  he  held  on  to 
it  till  he  saw  all  its  bearings  and  relations  clearly 
and  distinctly,  and  his  mind  never  wavered  or  hesi- 
tated as  to  its  conclusions.  These  traits  were  early 
developed,  and  by  this  means  he  could  readily  dis- 
pose of  a  vast  number  of  difficult  questions,  which 
ordinarily  would  embarrass  and  perplex  men  of  less 
clearness  of  perception  and  less  strength  of  purpose. 
But  his  great  peculiarity  was  a  habit  of  system 
and  order.  He  did  one  thing  at  a  time,  and  finished 
it  before  he  allowed  his  mind  to  be  distracted  by 
other  matters.  It  was  this  habit,  readily  acquired 
and  formed  in  early  life,  that  enabled  him  to  accom- 
plish so  much,  with  such  uniform  success.  He  was 
an  accurate  copyist  in  boyhood,  a  sagacious  business 
man  on  his  entrance  into  the  legal  profession,  a  wise 


MEMOIR  OF  HON.   REUEL  WILLIAMS.  59 

counsellor  in  the  more  difficult  cases  that  arise  in 
practice,  an  apt  conveyancer  and  draughtsman,  —  re- 
markable for  the  terse  brevity  of  his  legal  instru- 
ments,—  a  skilful  pleader  in  the  days  of  technical 
practice,  and  an  effective  and  successful  advocate. 
To  the  jury  and  before  the  court  his  arguments  were 
able,  logical,  and  exhaustive. 

This  habit  of  doing  a  thing  thoroughly  and  at  the 
first,  and  so  arranging  all  his  books  and  papers  as  to 
lose  no  time  in  a  confused  search  for  what  he 
wanted,  made  him  the  remarkable  business  man 
that  he  continued  to  be  through  life.  He  never 
allowed  himself  to  add  a  column  of  figures  a  second 
time,  and  never  found  himself,  or  was  found  by 
others,  to  be  mistaken. 

To  all  who  knew  him  well  Mr.  Williams's  domes- 
tic life  was  the  most  charming  theatre  of  his  virtues ; 
for  amid  all  the  activity  of  business,  and  the  calls  on 
his  time  in  the  public  service,  he  never  neglected  his 
own  fireside,  or  forgot  his  parental  duties.  Not  his 
own  children  and  household  alone,  but  the  large 
family  circle  of  which  he  became  the  recognized  and 
honored  head,  felt  his  influence,  and  the  power  of 
his  teachings.  His  own  self-denying  example,  his 
even  temper,  his  affable  manners,  his  fidelity  to  duty 
in  all  the  minute  details  of  daily  life,  his  readiness  to 
aid  those  who  were  disposed  to  help  themselves,  and 
his  silent  but  stern  rebuke  of  all  levity  and  extrava- 
gance, exerted  a  powerful  effect  on  all,  especially  on 
the  young,  who  came  within  the  reach  of  his  influ- 
ence. His  brothers  and  sisterSj  his  nephews  and 


60  MEMOIR   OF   HON.   REUEL   WILLIAMS. 

nieces  alike,  consulted  him  and  leaned  on  his  advice 
with  affectionate  veneration  and  regard.  He  threw 
himself  into  the  sports  of  children  with  the  same  zest 
as  into  business,  always  excelling  in  any  of  them. 
He.  was  very  fond  of  children  and  young  persons,  and 
yearly  or  oftener,  as  occasion  favored,  even  in  his 
latest  years,  he  would  get  an  omnibus,  and,  filling  it 
with  children,  grandchildren,  and  friends,  go  off  to 
Togus,  or  elsewhere,  on  a  strawberry  party,  or  on 
some  expedition  of  pleasure.  He  was  also  very  fond 
of  fishing,  and,  when  practicable,  would  give  up  his 
birthday,  with  a  week's  time,  to  this  sport. 

Notwithstanding  his  naturally  reserved  manner 
and  demeanor  to  strangers,  or  those  whose  charac- 
ter he  did  not  respect,  he  was  as  mild  and  gentle  as 
a  child  in  disposition,  and  most  cordial  and  winning 
to  those  who  appreciated  his  true  character. 

His  professional  life,  as  such,  gave  him  no  great 
opportunity  for  wide  notoriety  or  distinction  out  of 
his  State,  and  probably  he  had  less  pride  in  his  pro- 
fession merely  as  a  profession,  than  most  men  of  his 
time  of  far  less  ability.  His  great  success  in  the  early 
acquisition  of  an  ample  fortune  through  his  own  un- 
aided exertions,  his  large  acquaintance  with  the 
leading  men  of  Massachusetts  of  that  day,  his  annual 
visits  of  some  weeks  to  Boston,  where  he  met  in  the 
familiarity  of  friendship  the  best  educated  and  most 
accomplished  gentlemen  of  that  city,  seemed  to  satisfy 
his  ambition,  without  effort  for  public  notoriety.  But 
he  wras  widely  known,  in  comparatively  early  life,  as 
a  man  of  high  promise ;  while  his  entire  self-posses- 


MEMOIR  OF  HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS.  61 

sion,  ease  of  manner,  and  self-reliance,  early  led  to  his 
recognition  as  a  perfect  gentleman,  though  he  never 
assumed  to  be  one.  His  accurate  knowledge,  clear 

o   / 

judgment,  unquestioned  integrity,  admirable  business 
qualities,  and  well-known  success,  inspired  general 
confidence  at  home  and  abroad,  and  gave  him  vast 
influence  over  the  people  of  the  community  where  he 
dwelt ;  and  his  singular  freedom  from  all  vanity,  dis- 
play, or  affectation  of  superiority,  disarmed  the  natural 
jealousy  evinced  toward  prominent  men ;  and  he  was 
popular  beyond  example,  for  one  possessing  his  posi- 
tive qualities.  It  may  be  doubted  if  any  man  can  be 
named  who  had  in  so  great  a  degree,  for  so  long  a 
lifetime,  retained  so  fully  the  unqualified  confidence 
of  the  entire  community  in  which  he  lived.  He  en- 
joyed, too,  in  an  equal  degree,  the  confidence  and 
good-will  of  his  brethren  of  the  legal  profession,  — 
the  highest  aim  and  end  of  a  lawyer's  life. 

Everything  that  Mr.  Williams  said  or  did,  in  pub- 
lic or  private,  was  the  result  of  conviction.  He  was 
sincere  in  thought  and  in  act.  He  did  nothing  for 
effect,  nothing  to  excite  attention,  or  draw  forth  ob- 
servation and  remark.  His  desire  was  to  do  his  duty, 
to  fulfil  with  scrupulous  exactness  every  obligation, 
whether  arising  from  his  own  act  or  undertaking,  or 
resulting  from  that  of  others,  in  all  the  varied  rela- 
tions of  life,  whether  in  the  family  circle,  the  neigh- 
borhood, the  community,  or  the  world  at  large.  He 
had  an  abiding  faith  in  his  own  judgment,  for  he 
sought  to  form  it  by  the  pursuit  and  observance  of 
every  honorable  method  to  gain  information,  with  the 
6 


62  MEMOIR   OF  HON.   REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

most  conscientious  desire  to  reach  the  exact  measure 
of  justice  to  others. 

It  may  be  proper  to  say  something  as  to  his  relig- 
ious belief.  Educated  in  the  Congregational  order  of 
early  days,  before  its  division  into  Orthodox  and 
Unitarian  sects,  he  afterwards  became  a  member  of 
the  latter,  and  was  a  liberal  supporter  of  that  de- 
nomination. In  May,  1853,  in  the  Unitarian  Church, 
occupied  for  the  time  by  the  Rev.  Robert  C.  Water- 
ston,  of  Boston,  Mr.  Williams  was  publicly  baptized. 
This  event  following  soon  after  the  death  of  his 
son-in-law,  the  Rev.  Mr.  Judd,  a  man  of  rare  genius 
and  of  deep  religious  feeling,  for  many  years  pastor 
of  that  church,  shows  the  influence  that  had  gradu- 
ally led  him  to  make  a  public  confession  of  his  faith. 

To  extraordinary  energy,  Mr.  Williams  united  a 
large  share  of  common  sense.  He  had  a  well-balanc- 
ed mind,  with  excellent  judgment,  without  any  bril- 
liant qualities  of  any  sort.  These  gave  him  great  suc- 
cess. His  influence  with  the  jury  was  most  remarkable, 
from  the  confidence  felt  in  his  sincerity  and  the  truth 
of  his  statements.  He  had  the  power  of  presenting 
such  arguments  and  reasonings  as  would  satisfy  the 
common  sense  and  ordinary  understandings  of  men. 
His  sense  of  justice  was  always  predominant.  In  tes- 
tifying to  facts  affecting  his  own  interests,  no  one 
could  fail  to  see  his  exact  regard  for  truth,  and  his 
anxious  desire  to  give  full  force  to  facts  adverse 
to  his  own  side  of  the  case.  Instances  of  this  sort 
are  abundant  and  familiar  to  our  courts  and  lawyers. 

He  had  no  sympathy  with  persons  infirm  of  pur- 


MEMOIR   OF   HON.   REUEL   WILLIAMS.  63 

pose,  or  deficient  in  energy  and  courage.  He  felt 
that  success  in  this  world  was  open  to  all  men  alike, 
and  he  had  no  patience  with  a  spendthrift  or  a  slug- 
gard, though  ready  to  help  the  unfortunate  and  the 
deserving. 

A  form  of  beneficence  practised  by  Mr.  Williams, 
most  valued  and  most  valuable,  was  the  encourage- 
ment he  gave  to  the  industrious  and  deserving,  who 
had  been  fortunate  enough  to  gain  his  good-will, 
giving  them  means  of  acquiring  independence  by  the 
judicious  loan  of  his  capital,  in  the  form  of  permanent 
rents  at  low  rates,  or  advances  made  in  view  of  con- 
templated success  in  business.  The  proprieties  of 
private  confidence  forbid  more  than  an  allusion  to 
this  noble  trait  of  Mr.  Williams's  character. 

Trained  in  the  severest  discipline  in  the  daily  duties 
of  early  life,  instinctively  fond  of  order  and  method, 
he  enjoyed  to  the  last  the  labors  of  business,  the 
watchfulness  of  parental  oversight,  and  the  care  of  his 
own  property.  In  private,  as  in  public  life,  he  was 
faithful  and  faultless ;  as  a  legislator,  cautious  and 
conservative.  He  had  an  instinctive  regard  for  the 
common  law,  and  dreaded  the  innovations  of  senti- 
mental theorists.  All  changes  of  the  law  of  descent, 
and  the  separation  of  the  property  of  husband  and 
wife,  he  spoke  of  with  disfavor,  as  tending  to  disturb 
domestic  tranquillity ;  and  he  regarded  the  sacredness 
of  pecuniary  obligation  as  essential  to  the  mainte- 
nance of  good  morals. 

But  he  never  took  advantage  of  the  misfortunes, 
the  weaknesses,  or  the  mistakes  of  others.  He  never 


64  MEMOIR  OF  HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

exacted  a  harsh  penalty,  or  claimed  a  forfeiture, 
against  an  unfortunate  or  imprudent  debtor,  or  took 
unlawful  interest  of  others.  His  fortune  was  largely 
due  to  sagacious  investments  in  lands,  at  an  early 
day,  but  more  to  his  systematic  industry,  and  the 
gradual  accumulations  of  a  long  life  of  patient  and 
productive  toil. 

Though  occupied  by  so  many  and  such  multiform 
cares  of  private  and  public  business,  he  had  abundant 
leisure  for  the  gratification  of  every  wish,  for  he  so 
arranged  his  business  matters  that  they  never  en- 
croached upon  one  another. 

Many  acts  of  charity  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Williams 
were  so  performed  as  to  leave  no  feeling  of  mortifi- 
cation in  the  recipients  of  his  generosity;  and  he  was 
ever  careful  to  avoid  all  acts  that  might  in  any  way 
needlessly  wound  the  pride  of  those  less  fortunate 
than  himself  in  the  acquisition  of  wealth.  His  sense 
of  justice  was  the  mainspring  of  his  conduct,  and  he 
followed  the  dictates  of  his  judgment  far  more  than 
any  impulses  of  feeling. 

If  we  were  called  upon  to  determine  in  what  aspect 
of  his  life  his  example  was  of  most  value,  we  should 
say  in  the  practical  solution  of  that  greatest  social 
problem  of  this  age, —  the  proper  uses  of  wealth, —  a 
question  especially  interesting  to  Americans,  from  the 
comparative  ease  with  which  it  is  obtained,  and  the 
laxity  of  morals  which  seems  naturally  to  follow  its 
possession.  For  distinguished  position  or  great  wealth, 
unaccompanied  by  that  refinement  and  culture  which 
insure  their  direction  to  noble  ends,  is  a  positive 


MEMOIR  OF  HON.  REUEL  WILLIAMS.  65 

evil  to  the  possessor,  as  well  as  to  society  at  large ; 
and  the  man  who  has  wealth  without  generosity  and 
public  virtue,  is  an  incumbrance  if  not  a  nuisance  in 
society.  To  treat  with  respect  the  opinions  or  the 
memory  of  a  man  who  has  money,  for  that  alone,  but 
who  fails  to  fulfil  the  arduous  and  self-denying  trusts 
which  wealth  always  and  necessarily  imposes,  indi- 
cates a  debasement  in  morals  as  offensive  as  the  wor- 
ship of  idols,  or  other  practices  that  place  savage 
below  civilized  life.  In  any  proper  estimate  of  a 
man's  character,  we  must  award  praise  or  blame  by 
that  impartial  estimate  that  future  times  will  recog- 
nize as  the  true  one  —  the  amount  of  good  or  ill  he 
has  accomplished  for  humanity  and  his  race.  Any 
standard  of  virtue  drawn  from  a  more  limited  view 
of  its  nature  than  its  adaptation  to  the  general 
laws  of  our  well-being,  would  be  unworthy  of  our 
assent;  and  we  estimate  a  man's  greatness  in  pro- 
portion to  the  conformity  of  his  life  to  these  prin- 
ciples. 

Upon  any  view  of  life,  therefore,  judging  by  the 
lowest  standard  of  virtue,  few  men  are  fortunate 
within  the  definition  of  the  uninspired  Greek  moral- 
ist, and  still  smaller  the  number  of  those  worthy  of 
remembrance  after  death.  Domestic  infelicity,  infirm- 
ity of  body,  a  lack  of  the  means  of  enjoyment  in 
early  life  of  the  aspirations  of  youthful  ambition,  the 
want  of  opportunity  to  fall  bravely  in  battle  for  one's 
country,  or  by  some  honorable  sacrifice  win  an  hon- 
ored name  in  death,  are  the  common  allotments  of 
humanity.  It  is  only  those  whose  life  has  developed 


66  MEMOIR  OF   HON.   REUEL  WILLIAMS. 

the  persistent,  self-denying  principles  of  virtue,  that 
future  ages  can  worthily  honor. 

As  Mr.  Williams  recedes  from  the  immediate  view, 
of  his  contemporaries,  his  character  will  loom  up  to 
the  eye  of  those  who  come  after  us,  and  assume  its 
true  proportions  among  his  compeers.  Men  of  more 
brilliant  talent  —  in  the  popular  language  of  the 
day  —  or  even  more  developed  in  a  single  quality  of 
mind,  were  around  him,  in  the  Senate  and  in  our  own 
State.  Others  had  more  attainments  in  knowledge 
derived  from  books,  others  still  had  more  powers  of 
oratorical  fascination,  than  he  ever  put  forth  in  action. 
But  it  is  in  vain  to  seek  among  them  all  for  one  who 
united,  in  so  eminent  a  degree,  all  the  true  elements 
of  manhood  with  so  few  defects ;  who  illustrated  the 
self-denying  virtue  of  patient  forbearance  under  trials 
the  most  perplexing,  of  fidelity  to  duty  under  the 
greatest  temptation  to  self-aggrandizement,  of  gener- 
ous magnanimity  under  the  most  mortifying  proofs 
of  ingratitude.  With  every  opportunity  for  self-in- 
dulgence, he  maintained  to  the  last  the  virtues  of  an 
almost  austere  simplicity  with  the  wisest  private  and 
public  generosity,  realizing  the  measure  of  Solon's 
rule,  that  he  to  whom  Divinity  continued  happiness 
unto  the  end  we  call  happy. 


£ 

3 


THE  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 

Santa  Barbara 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW. 


Series  9482 


3  1205026554665 


flip 


